Diversity of Chemical Bonding and Oxidation States in MS₄ Molecules of Group 8 Elements

The geometric and electronic ground-state structures of 30 isomers of six MS₄ molecules (M=Group 8 metals Fe, Ru, Os, Hs, Sm, and Pu) have been studied by using quantum-chemical density functional theory and correlated wavefunction approaches. The MS₄ species were compared to analogous MO₄ species recently investigated (W. Huang, W.-H. Xu, W. H. E. Schwarz, J. Li, Inorg. Chem. 2016, 55, 4616). A metal oxidation state (MOS) with a high value of eight appeared in the low-spin singlet T_d geometric species (Os,Hs)S₄ and (Ru,Os,Hs)O₄ , whereas a low MOS of two appeared in the high-spin septet D_2d species Fe(S₂ )₂ and (slightly excited) metastable Fe(O₂ )₂ . The ground states of all other molecules had intermediate MOS values, with S^2- , S₂^2- , S₂^1- (and O^2- , O^1- , O₂^2- , O₂^1- ) ligands bonded by ionic, covalent, and correlative contributions. The known tendencies toward lower MOS on going from oxides to sulfides, from Hs to Os to Ru, and from Pu to Sm, and the specific behavior of Fe, were found to arise from the different atomic orbital energies and radii of the (n-1)p core and (n-1)d and (n-2)f valence shells of the metal atoms in row n of the periodic table. The comparative results of the electronic and geometric structures of the MO₄ and MS₄ species provides insight into the periodicity of oxidation states and bonding.