Rapid vibrational relaxation dynamics and strong Solute-Solvent interactions of the nitrite anion

[Display omitted] •Spectra and dynamics were measured for the asymmetric stretching band of nitrite near 1230 cm−1 in H2O, D2O, and DMSO.•The bands are broad and energy relaxation lifetimes are very short compared to other anions.•Measurements and analysis of a NaNO2 pressed pellet shows a reststrahlen band with a large damping constant. In this work, we have used steady-state and ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy to measure the absorption band centers and widths, as well as vibrational energy relaxation (VER) lifetimes for the antisymmetric ν3 stretching band of the nitrite (NO2–) anion in H2O, D2O, and DMSO. The nitrite IR absorption bands are very broad and the excited state has an extremely short VER lifetime in all three solvents, suggesting that NO2– interacts quite strongly with all of them. We also measured and analyzed reflection spectra for NaNO2 pressed pellets and determined that the damping is fast in the reststrahlen band.