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1. A comparison between hydrogen and halogen bonding: the hypohalous acid–water dimers, HOX⋯H ₂ O (X = F, Cl, Br)

   https://doi.org/10.1039/C9CP00422J  

   Wolf, Mark E.; Zhang, Boyi; Turney, Justin M.; Schaefer, Henry F. (March 2019, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics)

   Hypohalous acids (HOX) are a class of molecules that play a key role in the atmospheric seasonal depletion of ozone and have the ability to form both hydrogen and halogen bonds. The interactions between the HOX monomers (X = F, Cl, Br) and water have been studied at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory with the spin free X2C-1e method to account for scalar relativistic effects. Focal point analysis was used to determine CCSDT(Q)/CBS dissociation energies. The anti hydrogen bonded dimers were found with interaction energies of −5.62 kcal mol −1 , −5.56 kcal mol −1 , and −4.97 kcal mol −1 for X = F, Cl, and Br, respectively. The weaker halogen bonded dimers were found to have interaction energies of −1.71 kcal mol −1 and −3.03 kcal mol −1 for X = Cl and Br, respectively. Natural bond orbital analysis and symmetry adapted perturbation theory were used to discern the nature of the halogen and hydrogen bonds and trends due to halogen substitution. The halogen bonds were determined to be weaker than the analogous hydrogen bonds in all cases but close enough in energy to be relevant, significantly more so with increasing halogen size. 

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2. The HOX⋯SO ₂ (X=F, Cl, Br, I) Binary Complexes: Implications for Atmospheric Chemistry

   https://doi.org/10.1002/cphc.202000746  

   Kitzmiller, Nathaniel_L; Wolf, Mark_E; Turney, Justin_M; Schaefer, III, Henry_F (December 2020, ChemPhysChem)

   Abstract Sulfur dioxide and hypohalous acids (HOX, X=F, Cl, Br, I) are ubiquitous molecules in the atmosphere that are central to important processes like seasonal ozone depletion, acid rain, and cloud nucleation. We present the first theoretical examination of the HOX⋯SO₂binary complexes and the associated trends due to halogen substitution. Reliable geometries were optimized at the CCSD(T)/aug‐cc‐pV(T+d)Z level of theory for HOF and HOCl complexes. The HOBr and HOI complexes were optimized at the CCSD(T)/aug‐cc‐pV(D+d)Z level of theory with the exception of the Br and I atoms which were modeled with an aug‐cc‐pwCVDZ‐PP pseudopotential. 27 HOX⋯SO₂complexes were characterized and the focal point method was employed to produce CCSDT(Q)/CBS interaction energies. Natural Bond Orbital analysis and Symmetry Adapted Perturbation Theory were used to classify the nature of each principle interaction. The interaction energies of all HOX⋯SO₂complexes in this study ranged from 1.35 to 3.81 kcal mol⁻¹. The single‐interaction hydrogen bonded complexes spanned a range of 2.62 to 3.07 kcal mol⁻¹, while the single‐interaction halogen bonded complexes were far more sensitive to halogen substitution ranging from 1.35 to 3.06 kcal mol⁻¹, indicating that the two types of interactions are extremely competitive for heavier halogens. Our results provide insight into the interactions between HOX and SO₂which may guide further research of related systems. 

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3. How ‘ de facto variational’ are fully iterative, approximate iterative, and quasiperturbative coupled cluster methods near equilibrium geometries?

   https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2025-0542  

   Jones, Gregory H; Semidalas, Emmanouil; Martin, Jan ML (August 2025, Pure and Applied Chemistry)

   Abstract While limited coupled cluster theory isformallynonvariational, it is not broadly appreciated whether this is a major issuein practice. We carried out a detailed comparison withde factofull CI energies for a relatively large and diverse set of molecules near equilibrium geometries. Fully iterative limited CC methods such as CCSDT, CCSDTQ, and CCSDTQ5 do represent practical upper bounds to the FCI energy, as do CCSDT-3, CCSDTQ-3, and CCSD(cT). While quasiperturbative approaches such as CCSD(T) and especially CCSDT(Q) may significantly over-correlate molecules if there is significant static correlation, this is much less of an issue with Lambda approaches such as CCSDT(Q)_Λ. 

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4. Conformational comparison of urea and thiourea near the CCSD ( T ) complete basis set limit

   https://doi.org/10.1002/qua.27075  

   Barlow, Kayleigh R.; Tschumper, Gregory S. (December 2022, International Journal of Quantum Chemistry)

   Abstract The global minima of urea and thiourea were characterized along with other low‐lying stationary points. Each structure was optimized with the CCSD(T) method and triple‐ζcorrelation consistent basis sets followed by harmonic vibrational frequency computations. Relative energies evaluated near the complete basis set limit with both canonical and explicitly correlated CCSD(T) techniques reveal several subtle but important details about both systems. These computations resolve a discrepancy by demonstrating that the electronic energy of the C_2vsecond‐order saddle point of urea lies at least 1.5 kcal mol⁻¹above the C₂global minimum regardless of whether the structures were optimized with MP2, CCSD, or CCSD(T). Additionally, urea effectively has one minimum instead of two because the electronic barrier for inversion at one amino group in the C_slocal minimum vanishes at the CCSD(T) CBS limit. Characterization of both systems with the same ab initio methods and large basis sets conclusively establishes that the electronic barriers to inversion at one or both NH₂groups in thiourea are appreciably smaller than in urea. CCSDT(Q)/cc‐pVTZ computations show higher‐order electron correlation effects have little impact on the relative energies and are consistently offset by core correlation effects of opposite sign and comparable magnitude. 

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5. Extrapolation of high-order correlation energies: the WMS model

   https://doi.org/10.1039/C8CP04973D  

   Zhao, Yan; Xia, Lixue; Liao, Xiaobin; He, Qiu; Zhao, Maria X.; Truhlar, Donald G. (November 2018, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics)

   We have developed a new composite model chemistry method called WMS (Wuhan–Minnesota scaling method) with three characteristics: (1) a composite scheme to approximate the complete configuration interaction valence energy with the affordability condition of requiring no calculation more expensive than CCSD(T)/jul-cc-pV(T+d)Z, (2) low-cost methods for the inner-shell correlation contribution and scalar relativistic correction, and (3) accuracy comparable to methods with post-CCSD(T) components. The new method is shown to be accurate for the W4-17 database of 200 atomization energies with an average mean unsigned error (averaged with equal weight over strongly correlated and weakly correlated subsets of the data) of 0.45 kcal mol −1 , and the performance/cost ratio of these results compares very favorably to previously available methods. We also assess the WMS method against the DBH24-W4 database of diverse barrier heights and the energetics of the reactions of three strongly correlated Criegee intermediates with water. These results demonstrate that higher-order correlation contributions necessary to obtain high accuracy for molecular thermochemistry may be successfully extrapolated from the lower-order components of CCSD(T) calculations, and chemical accuracy can now be obtained for larger and more complex molecules and reactions. 

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