Is Nitrate Anion Photodissociation Mediated by Singlet-Triplet Absorption?

Photolysis of the nitrate anion is involved in the oxidation processes in the hydrosphere, cryosphere, and stratosphere. While it is known that the nitrate photolysis in the long-wavelength region proceeds with a very low quantum yield, the mechanism of the photodissociation remains elusive. Here, we present the quantitative modeling of singlet-singlet and singlet-triplet absorption spectra in the atmospherically relevant region around 300 nm, and we argue that a spin-forbidden transition between the singlet ground state and the first triplet state contributes non-negligibly to the nitrate anion photolysis. We further propose that the nitrate anion excited into the first singlet excited state relaxes nonradiatively into its ground state. The full understanding of the nitrate anion photolysis can improve modeling of the asymmetric solvation in the atmospheric processes, e.g., photolysis on the surfaces of ice or snow.