Two High-Pressure Phases of SiS₂ as Missing Links between the Extremes of Only Edge-Sharing and Only Corner-Sharing Tetrahedra

The ambient pressure phase of silicon disulfide (NP-SiS2), published in 1935, is orthorhombic and contains chains of distorted, edge-sharing SiS4 tetrahedra. The first high pressure phase, HP3-SiS2, published in 1965 and quenchable to ambient conditions, is tetragonal and contains distorted corner-sharing SiS4 tetrahedra. Here, we report on the crystal structures of two monoclinic phases, HP1-SiS2 and HP2-SiS2, which can be considered as missing links between the orthorhombic and the tetragonal phase. Both monoclinic phases contain edge- as well as corner-sharing SiS4 tetrahedra. With increasing pressure, the volume contraction (-ΔV/V) and the density, compared to the orthorhombic NP-phase, increase from only edge-sharing tetrahedra to only corner-sharing tetrahedra. The lattice and the positional parameters of NP-SiS2, HP1-SiS2, HP2-SiS2, and HP3-SiS2 were derived in good agreement with the experimental data from group-subgroup relationships with the CaF2 structure as aristotype. In addition, the Raman spectra of SiS2 show that the most intense bands of the new phases HP1-SiS2 and HP2-SiS2 (408 and 404 cm(-1), respectively) lie between those of NP-SiS2 (434 cm(-1)) and HP3-SiS2 (324 cm(-1)). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm these observations.