Dataset of noncovalent intermolecular interaction energy curves for 24 small high-spin open-shell dimers

We introduce a dataset of 24 interaction energy curves of open-shell noncovalent dimers, referred to as the O24 × 5 dataset. The dataset consists of high-spin dimers up to 11 atoms selected to assure diversity with respect to interaction types: dispersion, electrostatics, and induction. The benchmark interaction energies are obtained at the restricted open-shell CCSD(T) level of theory with complete basis set extrapolation (from aug-cc-pVQZ to aug-cc-pV5Z). We have analyzed the performance of selected wave function methods MP2, CCSD, and CCSD(T) as well as the F12a and F12b variants of coupled-cluster theory. In addition, we have tested dispersion-corrected density functional theory methods based on the PBE exchange-correlation model. The O24 × 5 dataset is a challenge to approximate methods due to the wide range of interaction energy strengths it spans. For the dispersion-dominated and mixed-type subsets, any tested method that does not include the triples contribution yields errors on the order of tens of percent. The electrostatic subset is less demanding with errors that are typically an order of magnitude smaller than the mixed and dispersion-dominated subsets.