Theoretical investigation of gas-phase molecular complex formation between 2-hydroxy thiophenol and a water molecule

The torsional potential of OH and SH rotations in 2-hydroxy thiophenol is systematically studied using the MP2 ab initio method. The outcome of state-of-the-art calculations is used in the investigation of the structures and conformational preferences of 2-hydroxy thiophenol and aims at further interaction studies with a gas phase water molecule. SCS-MP2 and CCSD(T) complete basis set (CBS) limit interaction energies for these complexes are presented. The SCS-MP2/CBS limit is achieved using various two-point extrapolation methods with aug-cc-pVDZ and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets. The CCSD(T) correction term is determined as the difference between CCSD(T) and SCS-MP2 interaction energies calculated using a smaller basis set. The effect of counterpoise correction on the extrapolation to the CBS limit is discussed. The performance of DFT based wB97XD, M06-2X and B3LYP-D3 functionals is tested against the benchmark energy from ab initio calculations. Hydrogen bond interactions are characterized by carrying out QTAIM, NCIPLOT, NBO and SAPT analyses.