Understanding the atmospheric sulfur cycle is fundamental in developing actions to mitigate its effects on acid rain formation. Solvation of HOSO and HSO2 species has been indicated as a possible pathway in sulfur acid formation. To observe differences in the behavior of these isomers in the water medium, electrical and reactivity properties - electronic chemical potential (μ), chemical hardness (η), and electrophilicity (ϵ)- have been obtained. Once the respective first solvation shells (15H2O for HSO2 and 23 H2O for HOSO) are considered, an increase of 25% in the dipole moment of HSO2 was observed, while the dipole moment of HOSO decreases in 11%. Both solvated isomers become softer (η decreases) compared to gas phase.
Methods: HOSO and HSO2 radicals in the presence of water are investigated through a sequential Monte Carlo/ Quantum Mechanics methodology. There, the intermolecular interactions are described by the Lennard-Jones plus the Coulomb potentials. For this, the DICE program was employed. The quantum calculations were performed at CASPT2/aug−cc− pV(T+d)Z level of theory through MOLPRO computational package.