Importance of the ligand basis set in ab initio thermochemical calculations of transition metal species

The impact of basis set choice has been considered for a series of transition metal (TM) species. The need for higher level correlation consistent basis sets on both the metal and ligand has been investigated, and permutations in the pairings of basis set used for TM's and basis set used for ligands can lead to effective routes to complete basis set (CBS) limit extrapolations of thermochemical energetics with little change in thermochemical predictions as compared to those resulting from the use of traditional basis set pairings, while enabling computational cost savings. Basis set superposition errors (BSSE) that can arise have also been considered. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.