Quantitatively correct UV-vis spectrum of ferrocene with TDB3LYP

Abstract

The ultraviolet-visible light (UV-vis) absorption spectrum of ferrocene is modeled with time-dependent density functional theory employing LSDA, BLYP, B3LYP, and CAM-B3LYP functionals in combination with 6-31G*, 6-31+G*, CC-PVTZ, and aug-CC-PVTZ basis sets. With the exception of LSDA, all functionals predict a reasonable Fe-CP distance of ∼1.67 Å. Diffuse functions are essential for the strongly allowed states at high energy but of lesser consequence for the visible range of the spectrum. Dipole forbidden states are examined with vibrationally excited structures, obtained from the normal modes of the infrared (IR) spectrum. Despite earlier claims, TDB3LYP predicts the UV-vis spectrum of ferrocene quantitatively correct. TDBLYP predicts a large number of spurious charge-transfer states, TDCAM-B3LYP and TDwB97XD are correct in the low-energy region but overestimate the energy of strongest peak of the spectrum by 0.8 eV. The amount of charge transfer involved in "d-d transitions" is equal to that in "charge-transfer states".