Through-space spin–spin coupling constants involving fluorine: benchmarking DFT functionals

Through-space spin–spin coupling constants (SSCCs) involving fluorine are computed applying Density Functional Theory and compared with experimental data to benchmark the performance of various functionals. In addition to the most often analysed J(FF) constants, we consider examples of J(FN), J(FP), J(FC) and J(FSe) constants. Basis sets optimised for the study of SSCCs are applied and thus we find the choice of the functional to be more important than the choice of the basis set. Different performance of DFT functionals is observed for different SSCCs, with the hybrid DFT functionals generally superior for the through-space couplings. When all the SSCCs are considered, PBE0 appears to be the most robust functional.