Density functional study of AuXq (X = O, S, Se, Te, q = +1, 0, -1) molecules

Bond distances, vibrational frequencies, electron affinity, ionization potential, and dissociation energies of the title molecules were studied by use of density functional methods B3LYP, B3P86, B3PW91, BHLYP, BLYP, BP86, mPW1PW91, and PBE1PBE. It was found that the ground electronic state is doublet for neutral species, singlet for the anion, and triplet for the cation, in agreement with experiments and previous theoretical studies. The calculated properties are highly dependent on the functionals employed, in particular for the dissociation energy. The predicted bond distances and vibrational frequencies are in agreement with experiments and previous theoretical results. BP86 and BLYP have relatively good performance in reproducing the experimental results, while BHLYP is the worst functional method compared with the other density functional methods used for the title molecules.