Exploring chemical pathways for the interstellar molecule HOCS ⁺ : Preferential formation of the O-protonated carbonyl sulfide isomer

Context . The recent interstellar detection of the high-energy O-protonated carbonyl sulfide isomer (HOCS + ) toward the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027 contrasts with the non-detection of its lower-energy S-protonated counterpart, HSCO + , the global minimum in energy. This raises questions regarding the occurrence of selective formation pathways of these [H,C,S,O] + isomers in space. Aims . In this work, we aim to explore the most likely gas-phase formation routes for both HOCS + and HSCO + beyond the direct protonation of OCS (i.e., HCS + + OH, HCO + + SH, HOC + + SH, and HCO + SH + ) to help rationalize previous observational results. Methods . We first explored the thermodynamic feasibility of the aforementioned reactions using high-level double-hybrid B2PLYPD3∕aug-cc-pVTZ and CCSD(T)-F12∕cc-pVTZ-F12 computations. For the reaction HCS + + OH, found to be the most thermodynamically favorable, we characterized the stationary points on its corresponding potential energy surface (PES). In addition, we also used a composite approach to refine relative energies and employed the statistical rate theory and master equation simulations to estimate rate constants and branching ratios. Results . We show that HOCS + is preferentially formed through the reaction of HCS + with OH, providing a plausible chemical explanation for its interstellar presence and the non-detection of the low energy isomer. Nevertheless, while the branching ratio computed at a T ~ T kin (G+0.693) = 70-140 K is qualitatively consistent with the observations, its value is two orders of magnitude larger than the derived HOCS + /HSCO + lower limit observational ratio (of ≥2.3). This suggests that if the upper limit of HSCO + is close to the real abundance, additional formation pathways may also play a significant role in shaping the isomeric ratio. Conclusions . These results highlight that including all isomers in a given family, along with their isomer-preferential formation pathways, in astrochemical models, which are in many cases isomer-insensitive, is essential to understand their formation routes.