Coupled Cluster CCSD Research Articles

Five ab initio potential energy and dipole moment surfaces for hydrated NaCl and NaF. I. Two-body interactions.

We report full-dimensional, ab initio-based potentials and dipole moment surfaces for NaCl, NaF, Na(+)H2O, F(-)H2O, and Cl(-)H2O. The NaCl and NaF potentials are diabatic ones that dissociate to ions. These are obtained using spline fits to CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pV5Z energies. In addition, non-linear least square fits using the Born-Mayer-Huggins potential are presented, providing accurate parameters based strictly on the current ab initio energies. The long-range behavior of the NaCl and NaF potentials is shown to go, as expected, accurately to the point-charge Coulomb interaction. The three ion-H2O potentials are permutationally invariant fits to roughly 20,000 coupled cluster CCSD(T) energies (awCVTZ basis for Na(+) and aVTZ basis for Cl(-) and F(-)), over a large range of distances and H2O intramolecular configurations. These potentials are switched accurately in the long range to the analytical ion-dipole interactions, to improve computational efficiency. Dipole moment surfaces are fits to MP2 data; for the ion-ion cases, these are well described in the intermediate- and long-range by the simple point-charge expression. The performance of these new fits is examined by direct comparison to additional ab initio energies and dipole moments along various cuts. Equilibrium structures, harmonic frequencies, and electronic dissociation energies are also reported and compared to direct ab initio results. These indicate the high fidelity of the new PESs.

Energetic Properties and Electronic Structure of [Si,N,S] and [Si,P,S] Isomers.

Correlated molecular orbital theory at the coupled cluster CCSD(T) level with augmented correlation consistent basis sets has been used to predict the structure and energetic properties of the isomers of [Si,N,S] and [Si,P,S]. The predicted ground states are linear (2)SNSi and cyclic (2)SPSi. The other two isomers are predicted to be ∼20 to 50 kcal/mol less stable than the ground state. The excess spin is mainly on S for (2)SNSi and on P for (2)SPSi. The calculated total atomization energies with the CBS limits derived from different methods differ by ∼2 kcal/mol. The results provide the best available heats of formation for these species. The bond dissociation energies (BDEs) in (2)SNSi are comparable to those in the corresponding diatomic molecules. For cyclic (2)SPSi, the formation of (4)P + (2)SSi requires less energy than the other bond dissociation processes. The BDEs in the higher energy isomers are substantially smaller than the corresponding diatomic species.

Fully Hydrogenated Beryllium Nanoclusters.

We present the ground state and energetically low structures of BenH2n nanoclusters as predicted using density functional theory (DFT) and employing the M06 meta-hybrid exchange-correlation functional. Results using the M06 functional are benchmarked against high accuracy coupled-cluster CCSD(T) and found to be in excellent agreement. For small values of n, the linear or polymeric form is the lowest energy geometry, while for sizes larger, n > 9 ring type and link type structures are the energetically lowest configurations. This trend has also been observed through ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations at finite temperatures. In addition to the binding energies of the structures we report on polymerization energies, Be-H bond energies with respect to coordination details, hydrogen desorption energies of saturated and oversaturated species, as well as computed infrared spectra of all the ground state and energetically low lying structures presented. Furthermore, we find that the saturated polymeric forms of the nanoclusters cannot retain molecular hydrogen, in contrast to what is expected when zero point energy corrections are not taken into account.

Reliable Potential Energy Surfaces for the Reactions of H2O with ThO2, PaO2(+), UO2(2+), and UO2(.).

The potential energy surfaces for the reactions of H2O with ThO2, PaO2(+), UO2(2+), and UO2(+) have been calculated at the coupled cluster CCSD(T) level extrapolated to the complete basis set limit with additional corrections including scalar relativistic and spin-orbit. The reactions proceed by the formation of an initial Lewis acid-base adduct (H2O)AnO2(0/+/2+) followed by a proton transfer to generate the dihydroxide AnO(OH)2(0/+/2+). The results are in excellent agreement with mass spectrometry experiments and prior calculations of hydrolysis reactions of the group 4 transition metal dioxides MO2. The differences in the energies of the stationary points on the potential energy surface are explained in terms of the charges on the system and the populations on the metal center. The use of an improved starting point for the coupled cluster CCSD(T) calculations based on density functional theory with the PW91 exchange-correlation functional or Brueckner orbitals is described. The importance of including second-order spin-orbit corrections for closed-shell molecules is also described. These improvements in the calculations are correlated with the 5f populations on the actinide.

Molecular and Dissociative Adsorption of Water on (TiO2)n Clusters, n = 1-4.

The low energy structures of the (TiO2)n(H2O)m (n ≤ 4, m ≤ 2n) and (TiO2)8(H2O)m (m = 3, 7, 8) clusters were predicted using a global geometry optimization approach, with a number of new lowest energy isomers being found. Water can molecularly or dissociatively adsorb on pure and hydrated TiO2 clusters. Dissociative adsorption is the dominant reaction for the first two H2O adsorption reactions for n = 1, 2, and 4, for the first three H2O adsorption reactions for n = 3, and for the first four H2O adsorption reactions for n = 8. As more H2O's are added to the hydrated (TiO2)n cluster, dissociative adsorption becomes less exothermic as all the Ti centers become 4-coordinate. Two types of bonds can be formed between the molecularly adsorbed water and TiO2 clusters: a Lewis acid-base Ti-O(H2) bond or an O···H hydrogen bond. The coupled cluster CCSD(T) results show that at 0 K the H2O adsorption energy at a 4-coordinate Ti center is ∼15 kcal/mol for the Lewis acid-base molecular adsorption and ∼7 kcal/mol for the H-bond molecular adsorption, in comparison to that of 8-10 kcal/mol for the dissociative adsorption. The cluster size and geometry independent dehydration reaction energy, ED, for the general reaction 2(-TiOH) → -TiOTi- + H2O at 4-coordinate Ti centers was estimated from the aggregation reaction of nTi(OH)4 to form the monocyclic ring cluster (TiO3H2)n + nH2O. ED is estimated to be -8 kcal/mol, showing that intramolecular and intermolecular dehydration reactions are intrinsically thermodynamically allowed for the hydrated (TiO2)n clusters with all of the Ti centers 4-coordinate, which can be hindered by cluster geometry changes caused by such processes. Bending force constants for the TiOTi and OTiO bonds are determined to be 7.4 and 56.0 kcal/(mol·rad(2)). Infrared vibrational spectra were calculated using density functional theory, and the new bands appearing upon water adsorption were assigned.

Computational Study of Ethanol Conversion on Al8O12 as a Model for γ-Al2O3

Correlated molecular orbital theory at the coupled cluster CCSD(T) level with density functional theory geometries is used to study ethanol dehydration, dehydrogenation, and condensation reactions on an the Al8O12 cluster which is a model for γ-Al2O3. The Al in the active site on the cluster is a strong Lewis acid. The reactions begin with formation of a very stable Lewis acid–base ethanol–cluster adduct. Dehydration proceeds by β-H transfer to a bicoordinate oxygen leading to the direct formation of ethylene and two OH groups following an E2 mechanism. Dehydrogenation proceeds directly by α-H transfer to the active metal center and a proton transfer to a bicoordinate bridge O to form acetaldehyde plus a metal hydride and a hydroxyl, again an E2 mechanism. After addition of a second ethanol, diethyl ether is generated by an α-C transfer from the first to the second ethanol, an acid-driven SN2 mechanism. Condensation and dehydration with two alcohols have comparable energy barriers. The addition of a secon...

Structures, relative energies, and ligand dissociation energies of iridium carbonyl phosphine clusters

There is significant interest in the catalytic properties of substituted iridium carbonyl clusters but little thermodynamic information available characterizing them. The low-energy isomers of Irx(PH3)y(CO)z (x=1, 2, 4) were investigated with density functional theory and correlated molecular orbital theory at the coupled cluster CCSD(T) level. The relative energies and ligand dissociation energies were calculated. Differences in relative energies are consequences of both electronic and steric effects of the phosphines and carbonyls. The calculations predict three fundamental structural types for Ir2(PH3)y(CO)z: C2v, C2, and D3d. Ten exchange–correlation functionals were used for the ligand dissociation energy calculations in addition to CCSD(T) for the smaller clusters. The ωB97X-D functional gave the most consistent ligand dissociation energies as compared with the CCSD(T) benchmark calculations, and, so it was used to predict the dissociation energies for larger clusters when CCSD(T) calculations were infeasible. The dissociation energies characteristic of Ir4(PH3)y(CO)z were in the range of ∼30 to ∼60kcal/mol. Dissociation of a bridging ligand often involved a hydrogen atom transfer from a phosphine to a coordinatively unsaturated iridium atom and a phosphine converting from a bridging site to an equatorial site. The products of such reactions are predicted to have lower relative energies than other isomers. Phosphines act as σ-electron donors, and there is a trend of an increase in carbonyl ligand dissociation energies as more phosphines are substituted in the small clusters.

Calculation of intermolecular potentials for H2[sbnd]H2 and H2[sbnd]O2 dimers ab initio and prediction of second virial coefficients

The intermolecular interaction potentials of the dimers H2H2 and H2O2 were calculated from quantum mechanics, using coupled-cluster theory CCSD(T) and correlation-consistent basis sets aug-cc-pVmZ (m=2,3); the results were extrapolated to the basis set limit aug-cc-pV23Z. The interaction energies were corrected for the basis set superposition error with the counterpoise scheme. For comparison also Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (at levels 2–4) with the basis sets aug-cc-pVTZ were considered, but the results proved inferior. The quantum mechanical results were used to construct analytical pair potential functions. From these functions the second virial coefficients of hydrogen and the cross virial coefficients of the hydrogen–oxygen system were obtained by integration; in both cases corrections for quantum effects were included. The results agree well with experimental data, if available, or with empirical correlations.

Gas Phase Properties of MX2 and MX4 (X = F, Cl) for M = Group 4, Group 14, Cerium, and Thorium.

Structures, vibrational frequencies, and heats of formation were predicted for MX4 and both singlet and triplet states of MX2 (M = group 4, group 14, Ce, and Th; X = F and Cl) using the Feller-Peterson-Dixon composite electronic structure approach based on coupled cluster CCSD(T) calculations extrapolated to the complete basis set limit with additional corrections including spin orbit effects. The spin-orbit corrections are not large but need to be included for chemical accuracy of ±1 kcal/mol. The singlet-triplet splittings were calculated for the dihalides and all compounds have singlet ground states except for the dihalides of Ti, Zr, and Ce which have triplet ground states. The calculated heats of formation are in good agreement with the available experimental data. Our predictions suggest that the experimental heats of formation need to be revised for a number of tetrahalides: TiF4, HfF4, PbF4, PbCl4, and ThCl4 as well as a number of dihalides: GeF2, SnF2, PbF2, TiF2, and TiCl2. The calculated heats of formation were used to predict various thermodynamic properties including average M-F and M-Cl bond dissociation energies and the reaction energies for MX2 + X2 → MX4. Edge inversion barriers were predicted. The calculated edge inversion barriers for the tetrafluorides show that the barriers for the group 14 tetrafluorides decrease with increasing atomic number, the group 4 barriers are ∼50 kcal/mol and CeF4 and ThF4 have inversion barriers of ∼25 kcal/mol.

Theoretical analysis of the S–P bond in a family of compounds that involve a P2S2 ring: role of the PBE0-1/5 exchange–correlation functional

In this work, we theoretically analyze the breaking of the P–S bond in the P2S2 ring involved in four thionating agents. In order to estimate the dissociation energy in these systems, we have employed three methods based on wave function; the Hartree–Fock (HF), the Moller–Plesset perturbation theory to second order (MP2) and the coupled-cluster CCSD(T) method. Besides, within the Kohn–Sham model, 19 exchange–correlation functionals with fixed geometry were applied. aug-cc-pVTZ and jul-cc-pV(T+d)Z basis sets were used as reference and likewise 5 basis set functions were used for comparison. By using CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ and CCSD(T)/jul-cc-pV(T+d)Z methods, we found that hybrid methods based on the adiabatic connection give similar predictions to these. In particular, the functional built with 1/5 of the exact exchange manifests a good performance in terms of geometrical prediction and dissociation energies. Following PBE0-1/5/aug-cc-pVTZ method, one of these thionating agents shows a free Gibbs energy, for the P–S breaking, of 3.3kcal/mol at 298K and around 380K this is dissociated, concurring well with experimental observation.

High-level theoretical spectroscopic parameters for three ions of astrochemical interest

The equilibrium geometry and rovibrational spectroscopic parameters of the three astrochemical ions l-C3H+, l-SiC2H+, and C3N− and some of their isotopologues are obtained from high-level quantum chemical calculations. A composite approach based on the explicitly correlated coupled-cluster method CCSD(T)-F12b, that further includes core correlation, scalar-relativistic effects and most importantly higher order correlation beyond CCSD(T) is used to set-up the near-equilibrium potential energy surface (PES). The spectroscopic parameters of these linear tetra-atomic ions are then extracted from these PESs by vibrational perturbation theory of second order (VPT2). Calculation of absolute intensities is also carried out for the stretching frequencies of the cations in order to identify the bands that are most likely to be detected. The importance of the accurate calculation of the rotational constants B0 and D0 for astrochemistry is discussed as well as the limits of VPT2 in this context and reasons for these limitations.

Comparative Assessment of DFT Performances in Ru- and Rh-Promoted σ-Bond Activations.

In this work, the performances of 19 density functional theory (DFT) methods are calibrated comparatively on Ru- and Rh-promoted σ-bond (C-H, O-H, and H-H) activations. DFT calibration reference is generated from explicitly correlated coupled cluster CCSD(T)-F12 calculations, and the 4s4p core-valence correlation effect of the two 4d platinum group transition metals is also included. Generally, the errors of DFT methods for calculating energetics of Ru-/Rh-mediated reactions appear to correlate more with the magnitude of energetics itself than other factors such as metal identity. For activation energy calculations, the best performing functionals for both Ru and Rh systems are MN12SX < CAM-B3LYP < M06-L < MN12L < M06 < ωB97X < B3LYP < LC-ωPBE (in the order of increasing mean unsigned deviations, MUDs, of less than 2 kcal/mol). For reaction energy calculations, best functionals with MUDs less than 2 kcal/mol are PBE0 < CAM-B3LYP ≈ N12SX. The effect of the DFT empirical dispersion correction on the performance of the DFT methods is beneficial for most density functionals tested in this work, reducing their MUDs to different extents. After including empirical dispersion correction, ωB97XD, B3LYP-D3, and CAM-B3LYP-D3 (PBE0-D3, B3LYP-D3, and ωB97XD) are the three best performing DFs for activation energy (reaction energy) calculations, from which B3LYP-D3 and ωB97XD can notably be recommended uniformly for both the reaction energy and reaction barrier calculations. The good performance of B3LYP-D3 in quantitative description of the energetic trends further adds value to B3LYP-D3 and singles this functional out as a reasonable choice in the Ru/Rh-promoted σ-bond activation processes.

Bonding and singlet-triplet gap of silicon trimer: effects of protonation and attachment of alkali metal cations.

We revisit the singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔE(ST)) of silicon trimer and evaluate the gaps of its derivatives by attachment of a cation (H(+), Li(+), Na(+), and K(+)) using the wavefunction-based methods including the composite G4, coupled-cluster theory CCSD(T)/CBS, CCSDT and CCSDTQ, and CASSCF/CASPT2 (for Si3) computations. Both (1)A1 and (3)A2' states of Si3 are determined to be degenerate. An intersystem crossing between both states appears to be possible at a point having an apex bond angle of around α = 68 ± 2° which is 16 ± 4 kJ/mol above the ground state. The proton, Li(+) and Na(+) cations tend to favor the low-spin state, whereas the K(+) cation favors the high-spin state. However, they do not modify significantly the ΔE(ST). The proton affinity of silicon trimer is determined as PA(Si3) = 830 ± 4 kJ/mol at 298 K. The metal cation affinities are also predicted to be LiCA(Si3) = 108 ± 8 kJ/mol, NaCA(Si3) = 79 ± 8 kJ/mol and KCA(Si3) = 44 ± 8 kJ/mol. The chemical bonding is probed using the electron localization function, and ring current analyses show that the singlet three-membered ring Si3 is, at most, nonaromatic. Attachment of the proton and Li(+) cation renders it anti-aromatic.

New XDM-corrected potential energy surfaces for Ar-NO(X(2)Π): a comparison with CCSD(T) calculations and experiments.

We report new potential energy surfaces for the ground state Ar-NO(X(2)Π) van der Waals system calculated using the unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) method with the addition of the Becke-Roussel correlation functional and exchange-hole dipole moment dispersion correction (XDM). We compare UHFBR-XDM surfaces and those previously reported by Alexander from coupled cluster CCSD(T) calculations [J. Chem. Phys. 111, 7426 (1999)]. The bound states of Ar-NO have been investigated with these new UHFBR-XDM surfaces, including relative energy-level spacing, adiabatic bender states and wave functions, and spectroscopic data. These results have been found to be in good agreement with calculations based on the CCSD(T) PESs. These new PESs are used to investigate the inelastic scattering of NO(X) by Ar. Full close-coupling integral cross sections at collision energies of 442 cm(-1), 1774 cm(-1) and differential cross sections at collision energy of 530 cm(-1) were determined for transitions out of the lowest NO(X) rotational level (j = ω = 1/2,f). These cross sections are in good agreement with those calculated with CCSD(T) and accordingly in good agreement with the most recent initial and final state resolved experimental data. The UHFBR-XDM scheme yields high-quality potential surfaces with computational cost comparable to the Hartree-Fock method and our results may serve as a benchmark for application of this scheme to collisions between larger molecules.

氢键的量子化学研究(一)

本文通过耦合簇CCSD等量子化学方法，对各种类型氢键选择有代表性分子进行了计算，还包括锂键、钠键和卤键，观察了形成氢键前后的MO和Δρ，认为它们有着共同的机制、本质，需要建立新的氢键概念。氢键新概念总的可表述为：氢键是分子内、分子间处于能级较高部位的电子(HOMO)，在轨道对称性相符时，向能级较低部位(LUMO)偏移部分电子，形成了双方共享电子能量降低的较稳定静电作用体系。量子化学计算描述了这种现象和事实。用计算实例介绍了这种电子偏移的基本情况和氢键新概念具体细节。 In this paper, the coupled cluster CCSD and other quantum chemistry methods are employed to study various kinds of representative hydrogen bond systems, as well as lithium bond, sodium bond and halogen bond systems; the MO and Δρ are observed before and after the formation of hydrogen bonds. We believe that these bonds have the common underlying mechanism, and a new concept about H-bond is needed to be established. The new concept of H-bond can be described as follows: When orbital symmetries are properly matched, the intramolecular or intermolecular electrons at high-energy level (HOMO) will partially transfer to lower energy regions (LUMO) and forms electron-shared, energy-reduced, relatively stable electrostatically interacting system. Quan- tum chemistry calculations faithfully described this phenomenon and fact. With practical calculation examples, the basic character of the electron transfer and the specific details of the new concept of H-bond are introduced.

Theoretical calculation of the vib-rotational interaction potential and the scattering cross section for the Ar-H2 (D2, T2) collision system

Based on the ab initio coupled-cluster CCSD(T) method in quantum mechanics, the charge distribution of Ar atom and its vib-rotational interaction with H2 molecule are calculated using augmented correlation consistent basis sets aug-cc-pV5Z and 3s3p2d1f1g Gaussian bonding function, and the basis set superposition error (BSSE) is eliminated using Boy and Bernardi's full counterpoise method. Afterwards, the analytical expression of the interaction potential of the Ar-H2 system is fitted with Tang-Toennies potential function. With this interaction potential, the scattering cross section of Ar-H2(D2, T2) collision system is calculated by using close-coupling method when the incident energy of Ar atoms is 83 meV. The calculated differential cross section of Ar-D2 collision system is consistent with the experimental results. Calculated result and analysis show that the dispersion energy plays a key role in the long-range attractive potential scattering, and the exchange energy plays an important role in the short-range repulsive potential scattering. The direction of the radial dipole of the Ar-H2 (D2, T2) collision system is turned twice in the range of impact parameters from 0.27 to 0.47 nm.

Accurate rotational constant and bond lengths of hexafluorobenzene by femtosecond rotational Raman coherence spectroscopy and ab initio calculations.

The gas-phase rotational motion of hexafluorobenzene has been measured in real time using femtosecond (fs) time-resolved rotational Raman coherence spectroscopy (RR-RCS) at T = 100 and 295 K. This four-wave mixing method allows to probe the rotation of non-polar gas-phase molecules with fs time resolution over times up to ∼5 ns. The ground state rotational constant of hexafluorobenzene is determined as B0 = 1029.740(28) MHz (2σ uncertainty) from RR-RCS transients measured in a pulsed seeded supersonic jet, where essentially only the v = 0 state is populated. Using this B0 value, RR-RCS measurements in a room temperature gas cell give the rotational constants Bv of the five lowest-lying thermally populated vibrationally excited states ν7/8, ν9, ν11/12, ν13, and ν14/15. Their Bv constants differ from B0 by between -1.02 MHz and +2.23 MHz. Combining the B0 with the results of all-electron coupled-cluster CCSD(T) calculations of Demaison et al. [Mol. Phys. 111, 1539 (2013)] and of our own allow to determine the C-C and C-F semi-experimental equilibrium bond lengths re(C-C) = 1.3866(3) Å and re(C-F) = 1.3244(4) Å. These agree with the CCSD(T)/wCVQZ re bond lengths calculated by Demaison et al. within ±0.0005 Å. We also calculate the semi-experimental thermally averaged bond lengths rg(C-C)=1.3907(3) Å and rg(C-F)=1.3250(4) Å. These are at least ten times more accurate than two sets of experimental gas-phase electron diffraction rg bond lengths measured in the 1960s.

A compact and accurate semi-global potential energy surface for malonaldehyde from constrained least squares regression.

We present a new approach to semi-global potential energy surface fitting that uses the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) constrained least squares procedure to exploit an extremely flexible form for the potential function, while at the same time controlling the risk of overfitting and avoiding the introduction of unphysical features such as divergences or high-frequency oscillations. Drawing from a massively redundant set of overlapping distributed multi-dimensional Gaussian functions of inter-atomic separations we build a compact full-dimensional surface for malonaldehyde, fit to explicitly correlated coupled cluster CCSD(T)(F12*) energies with a root mean square deviations accuracy of 0.3%-0.5% up to 25,000 cm(-1) above equilibrium. Importance-sampled diffusion Monte Carlo calculations predict zero point energies for malonaldehyde and its deuterated isotopologue of 14 715.4(2) and 13 997.9(2) cm(-1) and hydrogen transfer tunnelling splittings of 21.0(4) and 3.2(4) cm(-1), respectively, which are in excellent agreement with the experimental values of 21.583 and 2.915(4) cm(-1).

Oxidation, Reduction, and Condensation of Alcohols over (MO3)3 (M = Mo, W) Nanoclusters

The reactions of deuterated methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 1-butanol, 2-propanol, 2-butanol, and tert-butanol over cyclic (MO3)3 (M = Mo, W) clusters were studied experimentally with temperature-programmed desorption and theoretically with coupled cluster CCSD(T) theory and density functional theory. The reactions of two alcohols per M3O9 cluster are required to provide agreement with experiment for D2O release, dehydrogenation, and dehydration. The reaction begins with the elimination of water by proton transfers and forms an intermediate dialkoxy species that can undergo further reaction. Dehydration proceeds by a β-hydrogen transfer to a terminal M═O. Dehydrogenation takes place via an α-hydrogen transfer to an adjacent MoVI═O atom or a WVI metal center with redox involved for M = Mo and no redox for M = W. The two channels have comparable activation energies. H/D exchange to produce alcohols can take place after olefin is released or via the dialkoxy species, depending on the alcohol and the cluster. The Lewis acidity of the metal center with WVI being larger than MoVI results in the increased reactivity of W3O9 over Mo3O9 for dehydrogenation and dehydration. However, the product selection of aldehyde or ketone and olefin is determined by the reducibility of the metal center. Our calculations are consistent with the experiment in terms of the dehydrogenation, dehydration, and H/D exchange reactions. The condensation reaction requires a third alcohol with the sacrifice of an alcohol to form a metal hydroalkoxide, a strong gas-phase Brønsted acid. This Brønsted acid-driven reaction is different from the dehydrogenation and dehydration reactions that are governed by the Lewis acidity of the metal center.

Evaluation of the B3LYP and HSE06 density functionals in the calculation of spectroscopic properties of the HCl2+ dication

Potential energy curves (PECs) of the lowest singlet and triplet states of the HCl2+ dication have been calculated using density functional theory with the B3LYP and HSE06 functionals and coupled cluster CCSD(T) method, all with 6-311G(3df,3pd) basis set. Analysis of the results of all three methods shows that the triplet state is a pure 3Σ− state, while the singlet state is a mixture of the 1Δ and 1Σ+ states. Spectroscopic constants and Franck–Condon factors corresponding to the transitions from the ground state neutral HCl to these dicationic states have been calculated and compared to the available experimental and computational data. While the calculated spectroscopic constants and equilibrium bond lengths of the PECs obtained by the HSE06 functional are in good agreement with the available data, the predicted vertical offset of the PECs differ significantly with those observed experimentally. Inclusion of a set of floating basis functions corresponding to the Li ghost atom does not improve the results within the available experimental resolution. Addition of centrifugal term to the potential energy decreases the well depth and well width at barrier and increases the barrier height.