Accurate description of van der Waals complexes by density functional theory including empirical corrections

An empirical method to account for van der Waals interactions in practical calculations with the density functional theory (termed DFT-D) is tested for a wide variety of molecular complexes. As in previous schemes, the dispersive energy is described by damped interatomic potentials of the form C6R(-6). The use of pure, gradient-corrected density functionals (BLYP and PBE), together with the resolution-of-the-identity (RI) approximation for the Coulomb operator, allows very efficient computations for large systems. Opposed to previous work, extended AO basis sets of polarized TZV or QZV quality are employed, which reduces the basis set superposition error to a negligible extend. By using a global scaling factor…