THE ORIGIN OF ANOMALOUS BOND-DISSOCIATION ENERGIES OF V-2)(N) CLUSTERS - COMMENT((H)

In a recent study, we reported experimental determinations of bond dis sociation energies and entropies for V+(H-2)(n) (n = 1 to 6) and sugge sted that a spin change from quintet to triplet occurs upon addition o f the sixth H, ligand. A very recent theoretical paper by Niu et al. d isputes this and concludes that the experimental results are consisten t with purely quintet clusters (J. Niu, B.K. Rao, S.N. Khanna and P. J ena, Chem. Phys. Letters 230 (1994) 299). In this Comment, we restate our reasons for the proposed spin change and argue that important aspe cts of the results of Niu et al. are incorrect.