First-principles investigation of the effect of crystal structure on sulfur isotope fractionation in sulfide polymorphs

Abstract

In order to study the effect of crystal structure on S isotope fractionation properties of sulfide polymorphs, the reduced partition function ratios of S-34/S-32 (10(3)ln beta(34-32)) for FeS2, CoAsS, ZnS, CdS and MnS polymorphs are calculated in the present study. Our calculations show that 10(3)ln beta(34-32) decreases in the order of pyrite > marcasite > cobaltite > alloclasite > sphalerite approximate to wurtzite > gamma-MnS > hawleyite approximate to greenockite > alabandite. The S coordination number exerts a strong influence on the equilibrium partitioning of S isotopes in these sulfides, and there exist significant S isotope fractionations between the sulfides with different S coordination numbers (CNS), such as alabandite (CNS = 6) and other sulfides (e.g., FeS2, CoAsS, ZnS and CdS polymorphs) (CNS = 4). There is a broad negative correlation between the average bond lengths of all the bonds formed by S and 10(3)ln beta(34-32) values. The compactness of atom packing plays an important role in determining S isotope fractionation properties of sulfides, and S-34 generally tends to concentrate in the phases with higher atomic packing factor (APF). The linear correlation between APF and 10(3)ln beta(34-32) can predict the change of 10(3)ln beta(34-32) with increasing pressure, but pressure has a negligible effect on S isotope fractionation factors between sulfides.