Formation and photodissociation of scandium-sulfide clusters

Scandium-sulfide binary cluster ions were produced by direct laser ablation.and analysed by a time-of-flight mass spectroscope. The scandium-sulfide binary cluster ions are consisted of a binary skeleton and peripheral sulfur atoms. The "bear" skeleton (Sc2S3)(n) is the kernel of the clusters. The relative stable series of the positive cluster ions are ScS(Sc2S3)(n)(+) and Sc2S2(Sc2S3)(n)(+) (n = 0,1,2,...14). The relative stable series of negative ions are ScS2(Sc2S3)(n)(-), S-3 (Sc2S3)(n)(-) and (Sc2S3)(n)(-) (n = 0,1,2,...14).The number of the peripheral sulfur atoms around skeleton increases if the sulfur-rich sample is used. These peripheral sulfur atoms are easy to be stripped in photodissociation, losing S-2, S-4 and S-6. Through the analysis,we supposed that the structure of this kind of Sc-S cluster was cage like.