The evaluation of bond dissociation energies for simple sulphur containing molecules using ab initio and density functional methods

The S–H and C–S bond dissociation energies for simple alkylthiols and dialkylsulphides, along with the S–S bond dissociation energy for dimethyl disulphide, compounds which have been used in the metal–organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) growth of wide band gap II–VI (12–16) Zn- and Cd-based compound semiconductors, have been computed using the ab initio (ROHF and MP2) and density functional theory (DFT) methods (BHandH, BHandHLYP, B3LYP, B3P86, B3PW91, BLYP and BP86) with the 6-311+G(2d,p) basis set along with high accuracy complete basis set, CBS-4 and CBS-Q energy computations. The computed energies are compared with experimental results and the suitability of the DFT methods, for the computational study of these systems, is discussed.