The solvation properties of nitric oxide

Literature values for the partition of nitric oxide between the gas phase and water and between the gas phase and organic solvents have been combined to yield water-solvent partition coefficients. Analysis of the gas-solvent and water-solvent partition coefficients using the solvation equations of Abraham shows that nitric oxide is only a very weak hydrogen-bond base. The various solvation descriptors of Abraham for nitric oxide can be obtained, and are shown to be similar to other inorganic gases; the descriptors can be used to predict a large number of physicochemical properties of nitric oxide. A key property of nitric oxide is the lipophilicity, as the water-octanol partition coefficient, that we calculate to be quite small at 0.74 (log P(oct)), about the same as that for argon or nitrogen.