An interaction energy decomposition analysis method based on the block-localized wavefunction (BLW-ED) approach is described. The first main feature of the BLW-ED method is that it combines concepts of valence bond and molecular orbital theories such that the intermediate and physically intuitive electron-localized states are variationally optimized by self-consistent field calculations. Furthermore, the block-localization scheme can be used both in wave function theory and in density functional theory, providing a useful tool to gain insights on intermolecular interactions that would otherwise be difficult to obtain using the delocalized Kohn–Sham DFT. These features allow broad applications of the BLW method to energy decomposition (BLW-ED) analysis for intermolecular interactions. In this perspective, we outline theoretical aspects of the BLW-ED method, and illustrate its applications in hydrogen-bonding and π–cation intermolecular interactions as well as metal–carbonyl complexes. Future prospects on the development of a multistate density functional theory (MSDFT) are presented, making use of block-localized electronic states as the basis configurations.

A multistate density functional theory (MSDFT) is presented in which the energies and densities for the ground and excited states are treated on the same footing using multiconfigurational approaches. The method can be applied to systems with strong correlation and to correctly describe the dimensionality of the conical intersections between strongly coupled dissociative potential energy surfaces. A dynamic-then-static framework for treating electron correlation is developed to first incorporate dynamic correlation into contracted state functions through block-localized Kohn–Sham density functional theory (KSDFT), followed by diagonalization of the effective Hamiltonian to include static correlation. MSDFT can be regarded as a hybrid of wave function and density functional theory. The method is built on and makes use of the current approximate density functional developed in KSDFT, yet it retains its computational efficiency to treat strongly correlated systems that are problematic for KSDFT but too large for accurate WFT. The results presented in this work show that MSDFT can be applied to photochemical processes involving conical intersections.

Multistate density functional theory (MSDFT) is presented to estimate the effective transfer integral associated with electron and hole transfer reactions. In this approach, the charge-localized diabatic states are defined by block localization of Kohn–Sham orbitals, which constrain the electron density for each diabatic state in orbital space. This differs from the procedure used in constrained density functional theory that partitions the density within specific spatial regions. For a series of model systems, the computed transfer integrals are consistent with experimental data and show the expected exponential attenuation with the donor–acceptor separation. The present method can be used to model charge transfer reactions including processes involving coupled electron and proton transfer.