Lattice and Valence Electronic Structures of Crystalline Octahedral Molybdenum Halide Clusters-Based Compounds,...

The electronic and crystal structures of Cs₂[Mo₆X₁₄] (X = Cl, Br, I) cluster-based compounds were investigated by density functional theory (DFT) simulations and experimental methods such as powder X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). The experimentally determined lattice parameters were in good agreement with theoretically optimized ones, indicating the usefulness of DFT calculations for the structural investigation of these clusters. The calculated band gaps of these compounds reproduced those experimentally determined by UV-vis reflectance within an error of a few tenths of an eV. Core-level XPS and effective charge analyses indicated bonding states of the halogens changed according to their sites. The XPS valence spectra were fairly well reproduced by simulations based on the projected electron density of states weighted with cross sections of Al K_α, suggesting that DFT calculations can predict the electronic properties of metal-cluster-based crystals with good accuracy.