Photodissociation dynamics of CH3C(O)SH in argon matrix: A QM/MM nonadiabatic dynamics simulation

In this work, we have first employed the combined quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) method to study the photodissociation mechanism of thioacetic acid CH3C(O)SH in the S1, T1, and S0 states in argon matrix. CH3C(O)SH is treated quantum mechanically using the complete active space self-consistent field and complete active space second-order perturbation theory methods; argon matrix is described classically using Lennard-Jones potentials. We find that the C-S bond fission is predominant due to its small barriers of ca. 3.0 and 1.0 kcal/mol in the S1 and T1 states. It completely suppresses the nearby C-C bond fission. After the bond fission, the S1 radical pair of CH3CO and SH can decay to the S0 and T1 states via internal conversion and intersystem crossing, respectively. In the S0 state, the radical pair can either recombine to form CH3C(O)SH or proceed to form molecular products of CH2CO and H2S. We have further employed our recently developed QM/MM generalized trajectory-based surface-hopping method to simulate the photodissociation dynamics of CH3C(O)SH. In 1 ps dynamics simulation, 56% trajectories stay at the Franck-Condon region; the S1 C-S bond fission takes place in the remaining 44% trajectories. Among all nonadiabatic transitions, the S1 → S0 internal conversion is major (55%) but the S1 → T1 intersystem crossing is still comparable and cannot be ignored, which accounts for 28%. Finally, we have found a radical channel generating the molecular products of CH2CO and H2S, which is complementary to the concerted molecular channel. The present work sets the stage for simulating photodissociation dynamics of similar thio-carbonyl systems in matrix.