Recently, we have investigated the ionization potential (IP) theorem for some small molecules in the presence of external electric field [M. P. Borpuzari et al., J. Chem. Phys. 144, 164113 (2016)]. In this article, we assess the performance of some density functionals, local density approximation, generalized-gradient approximation (GGA), hybrid, meta-GGA hybrid, and range-separated functionals in the presence of two different solvent dielectrics, water and cyclohexane, in reproducing the vertical oxidation energy, reduction energy, and the frontier orbital energies. We also study the accessibility of different computational solvent models like the polarizable continuum model (PCM) and non-equilibrium PCM (NEPCM) in reproducing the desired properties. In general, the range-separated functionals do not perform well in reproducing orbital energies in the PCM. Range separation with the NEPCM is better. It is found that CAM-B3LYP, M06-2X, and ωB97XD functionals reproduce highest occupied molecular orbital energy in solvents, which may be due to the cancellation of PCM and density functional theory errors. Finally, we have tested the validity of the IP theorem in the solvent environment.

Performance of the density functionals mainly depends on the proper approximation of exchange‐correlation functionals. Modification of various parameters of such functionals, according to the demand of the system, has brought their accuracy level to a new height. Recent reports highlight that Long‐range Corrected (LC) functionals are not encouraging in reproducing orbital energies in solvent. Therefore, in this article, we have proposed a tuning scheme for the LC functional for improved orbital energies. In this scheme, the optimized long‐range HF exchange and the dielectric constant of the medium are included to modify the form of functionals. The proposed tuning is tested over a set of 103 molecules from IP131 database and fifteen solvent dielectrics. The tuned range separated functionals reproduce orbital eigenvalues in solvent continuum with good accuracy. More importantly, there is a consistency in the error for the tuned functional across the solvent media. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

No abstract

No abstract

Recently, the range-separated density functionals have been reported to reproduce gas phase orbital and excitation energies with good accuracy. In this article, we have revisited the ionisation potential theorem in the presence of external electric field. Numerical results on six linear molecules are presented and the performance of the range-separated density functionals in reproducing highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energies, LUMO energies, HOMO-LUMO gaps in the presence of the external electric field is assessed. In addition, valence and Rydberg excitation energies in the presence of the external electric field are presented. It is found that the range-separated density functionals reproduce orbital and excitation energies accurately in the presence of the electric field. Moreover, we have performed fractional occupation calculation using cubic spline equation and tried to explain the performance of the functional.