Proton Affinities of Anionic Bases:  Trends Across the Periodic Table, Structural Effects, and DFT Validation

We have carried out an extensive exploration of the gas-phase basicity of archetypal anionic bases across the periodic system using the generalized gradient approximation of density functional theory (DFT) at BP86/QZ4P//BP86/TZ2P. First, we validate DFT as a reliable tool for computing proton affinities and related thermochemical quantities:  BP86/QZ4P//BP86/TZ2P is shown to yield a mean absolute deviation of 1.6 kcal/mol for the proton affinity at 0 K with respect to high-level ab initio benchmark data. The main purpose of this work is to provide the proton affinities (and corresponding entropies) at 298 K of the anionic conjugate bases of all main-group-element hydrides of groups 14-17 and periods 2-6. We have also studied the effect of stepwise methylation of the protophilic center of the second- and third-period bases.