Prediction of water's isotropic nuclear shieldings and indirect nuclear spin-spin coupling constants (SSCCs) using correlation-consistent and polarization-consistent basis sets in the Kohn-Sham basis set limit.

Density functional theory (DFT) was used to estimate water's isotropic nuclear shieldings and indirect nuclear spin-spin coupling constants (SSCCs) in the Kohn-Sham (KS) complete basis set (CBS) limit. Correlation-consistent cc-pVxZ and cc-pCVxZ (x = D, T, Q, 5, and 6), and their modified versions (ccJ-pVxZ, unc-ccJ-pVxZ, and aug-cc-pVTZ-J) and polarization-consistent pc-n and pcJ-n (n = 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4) basis sets were used, and the results fitted with a simple mathematical formula. The performance of over 20 studied density functionals was assessed from comparison with the experiment. The agreement between the CBS DFT-predicted isotropic shieldings, spin-spin values, and the experimental values was good and similar for the modified correlation-consistent and polarization-consistent basis sets. The BHandH method predicted the most accurate (1)H, (17)O isotropic shieldings and (1)J(OH) coupling constant (deviations from experiment of about -0.2 and -1 ppm and 0.6 Hz, respectively). The performance of BHandH for predicting water isotropic shieldings and (1)J(OH) is similar to the more advanced methods, second-order polarization propagator approximation (SOPPA) and SOPPA(CCSD), in the basis set limit. 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.