Geometrical and Electronic Structures of MnS3(-/0) Clusters from Computational Chemistry and Photoelectron Spectroscopy.

The B3LYP functional and CASPT2 method have been applied to investigate the geometrical and electronic structures of η(2)-(S2)MnS(-/0), η(2)-(S3)Mn(-/0), and MnS3(-/0) isomers of MnS3(-/0) clusters. The ground state of the anionic cluster is computed to be the (5)B2 of η(2)-(S2)MnS(-) isomer, whereas that of the anionic cluster is calculated to be the (4)B1 of the same isomer. The photoelectron spectrum of MnS3(-) cluster is interpreted by electron detachment processes from the most stable η(2)-(S2)MnS(-) and from the metastable η(2)-(S3)Mn(-) and MnS3(-) isomers. The first and second bands with low intensities are, respectively, attributed to the (7)A' → (6)A' and (7)A' → (8)A' transitions within the η(2)-(S3)Mn(-/0) isomers. The third band with the highest intensity in the spectrum can be assigned to the (5)B2 → (4)B1, (5)B2 → (6)B1, and (5)B2 → (4)A2 transitions within the most stable η(2)-(S2)MnS(-/0) isomers, the (3)B1 → (2)A1 transition within the metastable MnS3(-/0) isomers, and the (7)A' → 3(6)A' transition within the metastable η(2)-(S3)Mn(-/0) isomers. Because the η(2)-(S2)MnS(-) is computed to be the most stable isomer of the MnS3(-) cluster, we believe that the highest intensity third band in the spectrum is mainly the result of electron detachments from this isomer.