An extended hybrid density functional (X3LYP) with improved descriptions of nonbond interactions and thermodynamic properties of molecular systems

We derive here the form for the exact exchange energy density for a density that decays with Gaussian-type behavior at long range. This functional is intermediate between the B88 and the PW91 exchange functionals. Using this modified functional to match the form expected for Gaussian densities, we propose the X3LYP extended functional. We find that X3LYP significantly outperforms Becke three parameter Lee–Yang–Parr (B3LYP) for describing van der Waals and hydrogen bond interactions, while performing slightly better than B3LYP for predicting heats of formation, ionization potentials, electron affinities, proton affinities, and total atomic energies as validated with the extended G2 set of atoms and molecules. Thus X3LYP greatly enlarges the field of applications for density functional theory. In particular the success of X3LYP in describing the water dimer (with Re and De within the error bars of the most accurate determinations) makes it an excellent candidate for predicting accurate ligand–protein and ligand–DNA interactions.