Fluorine spin-spin coupling constants of pentafluorobenzene revisited at the ab initio correlated levels

All possible spin-spin coupling constants, ¹⁹ F-¹⁹ F, ¹⁹ F-¹³ C, and ¹⁹ F-¹ H, of pentafluorobenzene were calculated at five different levels of theory, HF, DFT, SOPPA (CCSD), CCSD, and the SOPPA (CCSD)-based composite scheme with taking into account solvent, vibrational, relativistic, and correlation corrections. Most corrections were next to negligible for the long-range couplings but quite essential for the one-bond carbon-fluorine coupling constants. Hartree-Fock calculations were found to be entirely unreliable, while DFT results were comparable in accuracy with the data obtained using the wave function-based methods.