How reliable are gas-phase proton affinity values of small carbanions? A comparison of experimental data with values calculated using Gaussian-3 and CBS compound methods

Gas-phase proton affinities (PA) of a series of 25 small, aliphatic carbanions were computed using different Gaussian-3 methods: G3, G3(B3LYP), G3(MP2) and G3(MP2, B3LYP) and Complete Basis Set Extrapolation methods: CBS-4M, CBS-Q, CBS-QB3, and CBS-APNO. The results were compared with critically selected experimental data. The analysis of the results shows that for the majority of the studied molecules all compound methods (Gaussian-3 and CBS), except for CBS-4M, give comparable results, which differ no more than ±2 kcal mol−1 from the experimental data. Taking into account the calculation time, G3(MP2) and G3(MP2, B3LYP) methods offer the best compromise between accuracy and computational cost. As an additional proof, the results obtained by these two methods were compared with the values obtained using CCSD(T) ab initio method with large basis set. It was found also that some of the published experimental data are erroneous and should be corrected. The results described in this work show that for the majority of the studied compounds PA values calculated using compound methods can be used with the same or even higher confidence as the experimental ones because even the largest differences between Gaussian-3 and CBS methods listed above are still comparable with the accuracy of the typical PA measurements.

Reliable proton affinity values: to measure or to compute – that is the question!Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide