Data from: Hydrated Sulfate Clusters SO4(2-)(H2O)n(n=1-40): Charge Distribution Through Solvation Shells and Stabilization

In the current work, we report our computational study of hydrated sulfate clusters SO4(2–)(H2O)n (n = 1–40) in order to understand the nature of stabilization of this important anion by water molecules. We showed that the most significant charge transfer from dianion SO4(2–) to H2O takes place at a number of H2O molecules n ≤ 7. The SO4(2–) directly donates its charge only to the first solvation shell and surprisingly, a small amount of electron density of 0.15|e| is enough to be transferred in order to stabilize the dianion.