The accurate prediction of physicochemical properties of condensed systems is a longstanding goal of theoretical (quantum) chemistry. Ionic liquids comprising entirely of ions provide a unique challenge in this respect due to the diverse chemical nature of available ions and the complex interplay of intermolecular interactions among them, thus resulting in the wide variability of physicochemical properties, such as thermodynamic, transport, and spectroscopic properties. It is well understood that intermolecular forces are directly linked to physicochemical properties of condensed systems, and therefore, an understanding of this relationship would greatly aid in the design and synthesis of functionalized materials with tailored properties for an application at hand. This review aims to give an overview of how electronic structure properties obtained from quantum chemical methods such as interaction/binding energy and its fundamental components, dipole moment, polarizability, and orbital energies, can help shed light on the energetic, physical, and spectroscopic properties of semi-Coulomb systems such as ionic liquids. Particular emphasis is given to the prediction of their thermodynamic, transport, spectroscopic, and solubilizing properties.

The accurate calculation of intermolecular interactions is important to our understanding of properties in large molecular systems. The high computational cost of the current "gold standard" method, coupled cluster with singles and doubles and perturbative triples (CCSD(T), limits its application to small- to medium-sized systems. Second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation (MP2) theory is a cheaper alternative for larger systems, although at the expense of its decreased accuracy, especially when treating van der Waals complexes. In this study, a new modification of the spin-component scaled MP2 method was proposed for a wide range of intermolecular complexes including two well-known datasets, S22 and S66, and a large dataset of ionic liquids consisting of 174 single ion pairs, IL174. It was found that the spin ratio, ϵ=EE, calculated as the ratio of the opposite-spin component to the same-spin component of the interaction correlation energy fell in the range of 0.1 and 1.6, in contrast to the range of 3-4 usually observed for the ratio of absolute correlation energy, ϵ=EE, in individual molecules. Scaled coefficients were found to become negative when the spin ratio fell in close proximity to 1.0, and therefore, the studied intermolecular complexes were divided into two groups: (1) complexes with ϵ< 1 and (2) complexes with ϵ≥ 1. A separate set of coefficients was obtained for both groups. Exclusion of counterpoise correction during scaling was found to produce superior results due to decreased error. Among a series of Dunning's basis sets, cc-pVTZ and cc-pVQZ were found to be the best performing ones, with a mean absolute error of 1.4 kJ mol and maximum errors below 6.2 kJ mol. The new modification, spin-ratio scaled second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation, treats both dispersion-driven and hydrogen-bonded complexes equally well, thus validating its robustness with respect to the interaction type ranging from ionic to neutral species at minimal computational cost.

Accurate prediction of intermolecular interactions plays a pivotal role in many areas of chemistry and biology including (but not limited to) the design of pharmaceuticals, solid electrolytes and food additives. Here we present the application of the recently developed spin-ratio scaled MP2 method (termed SRS-MP2) to six different datasets covering a wide range of interaction types from strong hydrogen bonding to van der Waals dispersion and π-π stacking. The method achieves a remarkably low mean absolute error of 1.6 kJ mol across all interaction types including semi-Coulombic systems such as organic ionic salts. The new SRS-MP2 method offers high level of accuracy for studying intermolecular interactions commonly found in molecular systems of chemical and biological relevance without the need for including additional terms in the formulation. This finding represents a new paradigm in the development of wavefunction-based methods for intermolecular interactions.