Application of the SCC-DFTB method to hydroxide water clusters and aqueous hydroxide solutions

The self-consistent charge density functional tight binding (SCC-DFTB) method has been applied to hydroxide water clusters and a hydroxide ion in bulk water. To determine the impact of various implementations of SCC-DFTB on the energetics and dynamics of a hydroxide ion in gas phase and condensed phase, the DFTB2, DFTB2-γ(h), DFTB2-γ(h)+gaus, DFTB3-diag, DFTB3-diag+gaus, DFTB3-Full+gaus, and DFTB3-3OB implementations have been tested. Energetic stabilities for small hydroxide clusters, OH(-)(H2O)n, where n = 4-7, are inconsistent with the results calculated with the B3LYP and second order Møller-Plesset (MP2) levels of ab initio theory. The condensed phase simulations, OH(-)(H2O)127, using the DFTB2, DFTB2-γ(h), DFTB2-γ(h)+gaus, DFTB3-diag, DFTB3-diag+gaus, DFTB3-Full+gaus and DFTB3-3OB methods are compared to Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD) simulations using the BLYP functional. The SCC-DFTB method including a modified O-H repulsive potential and the third order correction (DFTB3-diag/Full+gaus) is shown to poorly reproduce the CPMD computational results, while the DFTB2 and DFTB2-γ(h) method somewhat more closely describe the structural and dynamical nature of the hydroxide ion in condensed phase. The DFTB3-3OB outperforms the MIO parameter set but is no more accurate than DFTB2. It is also shown that the overcoordinated water molecules lead to an incorrect bulk water density and result in unphysical water void formation. The results presented in this paper point to serious drawbacks for various DFTB extensions and corrections for a hydroxide ion in aqueous environments.