An ab initio benchmark study of hydrogen bonded formamide dimers

The five singly and doubly hydrogen bonded dimers of formamide are calculated at the correlated level by using resolution of identity Moller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory (RIMP2) and the coupled cluster with singles, doubles, and perturbative triples [CCSD(T)] method. All structures are optimized with the Dunning aug-cc-pVTZ and aug-cc-pVQZ basis sets. The binding energies are extrapolated to the complete basis set (CBS) limit by using the aug-cc-pVXZ (X = D, T, Q) basis set series. The effect of extending the basis set to aug-cc-pV5Z on the geometries and binding energies is studied for the centrosymmetric doubly N-H center dot center dot center dot O bonded dimer FA1 and the doubly C-H center dot center dot center dot O bonded dimer FA5. The MP2 CBS limits range from -5.19 kcal/mol for FA5 to -14.80 kcal/mol for the FA1 dimer. The Delta CCSD(T) corrections to the MP2 CBS limit binding energies calculated with the 6-31+G(d,p), aug-cc-pVDZ, and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets are mutually consistent to within <= 0.03 kcal/mol. The Delta CCSD(T) correction increases the binding energy of the C-H center dot center dot center dot O bonded FA5 dimer by 0.4 kcal/mol or similar to 9% over the distance range +/- 0.5 angstrom relative to the potential minimum. This implies that the ubiquitous long-range C-H center dot center dot center dot O interactions in proteins are stronger than hitherto calculated.