Co-reporter:Bin Wang, Ni Wu, Xiao-Bin Zhang, Xin Huang, Yong-Fan Zhang, Wen-Kai Chen, and Kai-Ning Ding
The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 2013 Volume 117(Issue 27) pp:5632-5641
Publication Date(Web):June 14, 2013
DOI:10.1021/jp309163c
Density functional theory (DFT) and coupled cluster theory (CCSD(T)) calculations are carried out to investigate the electronic and structural properties of a series of monomolybdenum sulfide clusters, MoSn–/0 (n = 1–5). Generalized Koopmans’ theorem is applied to predict the vertical detachment energies and simulate the photoelectron spectra (PES). We found that the additional sulfur atoms have a tendency to successively occupy the terminal sites in the sequential sulfidation until the Mo reaches its maximum oxidation sate of +6. After that, the polysulfide ligands (viz., S2 and S3) emerge in the MoS4 and MoS5–/0 clusters. The MoS4 (C2, 1A) is predicted to be the ground state and may be used as a neutral model for the sulfur-rich edge sites of the fresh MoS2 catalysts. Molecular orbital analyses are performed to analyze the chemical bonding in the monomolybdenum sulfide clusters and to elucidate their electronic and structural evolution.