A seventh blind test of crystal structure prediction was organized by the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre featuring seven target systems of varying complexity: a silicon and iodine-containing molecule, a copper coordination complex, a near-rigid molecule, a cocrystal, a polymorphic small agrochemical, a highly flexible polymorphic drug candidate, and a polymorphic morpholine salt. In this first of two parts focusing on structure generation methods, many crystal structure prediction (CSP) methods performed well for the small but flexible agrochemical compound, successfully reproducing the experimentally observed crystal structures, while few groups were successful for the systems of higher complexity. A powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) assisted exercise demonstrated the use of CSP in successfully determining a crystal structure from a low-quality PXRD pattern. The use of CSP in the prediction of likely cocrystal stoichiometry was also explored, demonstrating multiple possible approaches. Crystallographic disorder emerged as an important theme throughout the test as both a challenge for analysis and a major achievement where two groups blindly predicted the existence of disorder for the first time. Additionally, large-scale comparisons of the sets of predicted crystal structures also showed that some methods yield sets that largely contain the same crystal structures.

A seventh blind test of crystal structure prediction has been organized by the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre. The results are presented in two parts, with this second part focusing on methods for ranking crystal structures in order of stability. The exercise involved standardized sets of structures seeded from a range of structure generation methods. Participants from 22 groups applied several periodic DFT-D methods, machine learned potentials, force fields derived from empirical data or quantum chemical calculations, and various combinations of the above. In addition, one non-energy-based scoring function was used. Results showed that periodic DFT-D methods overall agreed with experimental data within expected error margins, while one machine learned model, applying system-specific AIMnet potentials, agreed with experiment in many cases demonstrating promise as an efficient alternative to DFT-based methods. For target XXXII, a consensus was reached across periodic DFT methods, with consistently high predicted energies of experimental forms relative to the global minimum (above 4 kJ mol⁻¹ at both low and ambient temperatures) suggesting a more stable polymorph is likely not yet observed. The calculation of free energies at ambient temperatures offered improvement of predictions only in some cases (for targets XXVII and XXXI). Several avenues for future research have been suggested, highlighting the need for greater efficiency considering the vast amounts of resources utilized in many cases.

A new implementation of the XDM dispersion model within FHI-aims allows efficient use of XDM-corrected hybrid functionals, found to be the most accurate DFT methods for molecular crystal lattice energies to date.

In this article, we present the first comprehensive study of metallophilic (aurophilic) interactions using dispersion-corrected density-functional theory. Dispersion interactions (an essential component of metallophilicity) are treated using the exchange-hole dipole moment (XDM) model. By comparing against coupled-cluster benchmark calculations on simple dimers, we show that LC-ωPBE-XDM is a viable functional to study interactions between closed-shell transition metals and that it performs uniformly better than second-order Møller-Plesset theory, the basic computational technique used in previous works. We apply LC-ωPBE-XDM to address several open questions regarding metallophilicity, such as the interplay between dispersion and relativistic effects, the interaction strength along group 11, the additivity of homo- and hetero-metallophilic effects, the stability of [E(AuPH3)4]+ cations (E = N, P, As, Sb), and the role of metallophilic effects in crystal packing. We find that relativistic effects explain the prevalence of aurophilicity not by stabilizing metal-metal contacts, but by preventing gold from forming ionic structures involving bridge anions (which are otherwise common for Ag and Cu) as a result of the increased electron affinity of the metal. Dispersion effects are less important than previously assumed and their stabilization contribution is relatively independent of the metal.

This paper analyzes the structural, energetic and mechanical properties of carbon dioxide hydrate clathrates calculated using finite cluster and periodic ab initio density-functional theory methodologies. Intermolecular interactions are described by the exchange-hole dipole moment method. The stability, gas saturation energetics, guest–host interactions, cage deformations, vibrational frequencies, and equation of state parameters for the low-pressure sI cubic phase of the CO₂@H₂O clathrate hydrate are presented. Our results reveal that: (i) the gas saturation process energetically favors complete filling; (ii) carbon dioxide molecules prefer to occupy the larger of the two cages in the sI structure; (iii) blue shifts occur in both the symmetric and antisymmetric stretching frequencies of CO₂ upon encapsulation; and (iv) free rotation of guest molecules is restricted to a plane parallel to the hexagonal faces of the large cages. In addition, we calculate the librational frequency of the hindered rotation of the guest molecule in the plane perpendicular to the hexagonal faces. Our calculated spectroscopic data can be used as signatures for the detection of clathrate hydrates in planetary environments.