Multicomponent Density Functional Theory: Impact of Nuclear Quantum Effects on Proton Affinities and Geometries

Nuclear quantum effects such as zero point energy play a critical role in computational chemistry and often are included as energetic corrections following geometry optimizations. The nuclear-electronic orbital (NEO) multicomponent density functional theory (DFT) method treats select nuclei, typically protons, quantum mechanically on the same level as the electrons. Electron-proton correlation is highly significant, and inadequate treatments lead to highly overlocalized nuclear densities. A recently developed electron-proton correlation functional, epc17, has been shown to provide accurate nuclear densities for molecular systems. Herein, the NEO-DFT/epc17 method is used to compute the proton affinities for a set of molecules and to examine the role of nuclear quantum effects on the equilibrium geometry of FHF-. The agreement of the computed results with experimental and benchmark values demonstrates the promise of this approach for including nuclear quantum effects in calculations of proton affinities, pK(a)'s, optimized geometries, and reaction paths.