A benchmark study on all possible density functional theory (DFT) methods in Gaussian09 is done to locate functionals that agree well with CCSD/aug-cc-pVTZ geometry and Ave-CCSD(T)/(Q-T) interaction energy (Eint) for small non-covalently interacting molecular dimers in "dispersion-dominated" (class 1), "dipole-induced dipole" (class 2), and "dipole-dipole" (class 3) classes. A DFT method is recommended acceptable if the geometry showed close agreement to CCSD result (RMSD < 0.045) and Eint was within 80-120% accuracy. Among 382 tested functionals, 1-46% gave good geometry, 13-44% gave good Eint , while 1-33% satisfied geometry and energy criteria. Further screening to locate the best performing functionals for all the three classes was made by counting the acceptable values of energy and geometry given by each functionals. The meta-generalized gradient approximation (GGA) functional M06L was the best performer with total 14 hits; seven acceptable energies and seven acceptable geometries. This was the only functional "recommended" for at least two dimers in each class. The functionals M05, B2PLYPD, B971, mPW2PLYPD, PBEB95, and CAM-B3LYP gave 11 hits while PBEhB95, PW91B95, Wb97x, BRxVP86, BRxP86, HSE2PBE, HSEh1PBE, PBE1PBE, PBEh1PBE, and PW91TPSS gave 10 hits. Among these, M05, B971, mPW2PLYPD, Wb97x, and PW91TPSS were among the "recommended" list of at least one dimer from each class. Long-range correction (LC) of Hirao and coworkers to exchange-correlation functionals showed massive improvement in geometry and Eint . The best performing LC-functionals were LC-G96KCIS and LC-PKZBPKZB. Our results predict that M06L is the most trustworthy DFT method in Gaussian09 to study small non-covalently interacting systems.

Cooperativity in intermolecular interactions and cluster growth patterns of acetonitrile has been studied using M06L density functional theory. Cyclic, ladder-type, stacked, cross-stacked, and mixed patterns are studied. Total interaction energy (E(int)) and interaction energy per monomer (E(m)) show maximum stability and cooperativity in stacked clusters followed by cross-stacked ones. As cluster size increased, magnitude of E(m) showed significant increase. Compared to E(m) of dimer (-2.97 kcal/mol), the increase is 2.6-fold for 27mer. Higher stabilization in larger clusters is attributed to strong cooperativity in intermolecular C-H···N and dipolar interactions. Enhanced cooperativity in stacked structures is supported by atoms-in-molecule electron density (ρ) data. Sum of ρ at intermolecular bond critical points is the highest for stacked clusters. Further, area of negative-valued molecular electrostatic potential is linearly related with E(int) and showed the lowest value in stacked followed by cross-stacked clusters, indicating maximum utilization of lone pair density and maximum cooperativity in such growth patterns. A red shift in the average C-N stretching frequencies with increase in the number of monomers and its direct correlation with E(int) in stacked clusters also supported their stability. Further, two known crystal patterns of acetonitrile (α and β) with 16 monomers are optimized and compared with the most stable hexadecamer pattern and are found to show lower values for E(int) and E(m) compared to the latter. Based on this result, we predict the existence of a third crystal pattern for acetonitrile which will be more ordered and more stable than α and β forms.

Strong complimentary electrostatic interactions lead to large number of C⋯C interactions in doubly antiaromatic C4N dimers while the delocalized system of π electrons in doubly aromatic C4N+2 dimers suggest very few intermolecular C⋯C interactions.

Polyynes, the smaller analogues of one dimensional infinite chain carbon allotrope carbyne, have been studied for the type and strength of the intermolecular interactions in their dimer and tetramer complexes using density functional theory. The nature of end group functionalities and the chain length of the polyynes are varied to assess their role in modulating the non-covalent interaction energy. As seen in molecular electrostatic potential analysis, all the polyyne complexes showed a multitude of non-covalent CC interactions, resulting from complementary electrostatic interactions between relatively electron rich formal triple bond region of one monomer and the electron deficient formal single bond region of the other monomer. This type of paired (C[triple bond, length as m-dash]C)(C-C) bonding interaction, also characterized using quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules, increases with increase in the monomer chain length leading to substantial increase in interaction energy (Eint); -1.07 kcal mol(-1) for the acetylene dimer to -45.83 kcal mol(-1) for the 50yne dimer. The magnitude of Eint increases with substitutions at end positions of the polyyne and this effect persists even up to 50 triple bonds, the largest chain length analyzed in this paper. The role of CC interactions in stabilizing the polyyne dimers is also shown by sliding one monomer in a dimer over the other, which resulted in multiple minima with a reduced number of CC interactions and lower values of Eint. Furthermore, strong cooperativity in the CC bond strength in tetramers is observed as the interaction energy per monomer (Em) of the polyyne is 2.5-2.8 times higher compared to that of the dimer in a test set of four tetramers. The huge gain in energy observed in large polyyene dimers and tetramers predicts the formation of polyyne bundles which may find use in the design of new functional molecular materials.