Theoretical Study on the Microhydration of Atmospherically Important Carbonyl Sulfide in Its Neutral and Anionic Forms: Bridging the Gap between the Bulk and Finite Size Microhydrated Cluster

Carbonyl sulfide (OCS) is the most abundant and stable sulfur-containing triatomic gas present in the atmosphere that plays an important role in aerosol formation. Structure, energetics, and photoelectron spectral properties of the microhydrated OCS in its neutral and anionic forms have been studied by using the BP86, B3LYP, and MP2 methods. OCS is linear in the neutral state but bent in the anionic state. Water binds with the OCS through a single hydrogen bond (O-H center dot center dot center dot O) in the OCS-(H2O)(n) [n = 1-6], whereas binding of OCS- with water takes place through single as well as double hydrogen bonds (O-H center dot center dot center dot S and O-H center dot center dot center dot O). Energy decomposition analysis shows that electrostatic and exchange energies are the main contributors to the stabilization energy of the microhydrated OCS and OCS- clusters. Detachment as well as solvation energies are calculated with different levels of theory and compared with the existing experimental values. Finally, an analytical expression has been used to obtain the bulk value of the detachment and solvation energies from the existing information on the finite size clusters. The present study reveals that hydration increases the detachment energy of the OCS- by 3.2 eV. In the absence of experimental bulk values of the detachment and solvation energies for this system, the values obtained by the solvent-number-dependent theoretical expression will definitely reduce this gap and may be used for the modeling of the OCS in the atmosphere.