Structural investigation of asymmetrical dimer radical cation system (H2O-H2S)+: proton-transferred or hemi-bonded?

Ab initio molecular orbital and hybrid density functional methods have been employed to characterize the structure and bonding of (H2O-H2S)+, an asymmetrical dimer radical cation system. A comparison has been made between the two-center three-electron (2c-3e) hemi-bonded system and the proton-transferred hydrogen-bonded systems of (H2O-H2S)+. Geometry optimization of these systems was carried out using unrestricted Hartree Fock (HF), density functional theory with different functionals, and second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation (MP2) methods with 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. Hessian calculations have been done at the same level to check the nature of the equilibrium geometry. Energy data were further improved by calculating basis set superposition error for the structures optimized through MP2/6-311++G(d,p) calculations. The calculated results show that the dimer radical cation structure with H2O as proton acceptor is more stable than those structures in which H2O acts as a proton donor or the 2c-3e hemi-bonded (H2O thereforeSH2)+ system. This stability trend has been further confirmed by more accurate G3, G3B3, and CCSD(T) methods. On the basis of the present calculated results, the structure of H4OS+ can best be described as a hydrogen-bonded complex of H3O+ and SH with H2O as a proton acceptor. It is in contrast to the structure of neutral (H2O...H2S) dimer where H2O acts as a proton donor. The present work has been able to resolve the ambiguity in the nature of bonding between H2O and H2S in (H2O-H2S)+ asymmetrical dimer radical cation.