nitritethiosulfate

Nitritethiosulfate is a chemical name that may describe a mixed nitrite-thiosulfate species, such as a salt containing nitrite (NO2−) and thiosulfate (S2O3^2−) moieties, or a transient adduct formed in aqueous reactions between nitrite and thiosulfate. The term is not widely standardized in chemical literature, and there is no universally accepted, well-characterized compound that carries this name. In practice, references to nitritethiosulfate often point to either salts that incorporate both anions or to short-lived species observed under specific experimental conditions.

The precise structural and physical properties of nitritethiosulfate, if it exists as a discrete compound, are not well documented. Nitrite and thiosulfate can participate in redox chemistry in water, with nitrite acting as an oxidant and thiosulfate as a reducing agent; such interactions can yield a range of products, including sulfur-containing species and oxidized nitrogen species. If a nitritethiosulfate entity forms, it is expected to be sensitive to pH and may decompose to simpler inorganic sulfur and nitrogen oxyanions under acidic or strongly basic conditions.

Synthesis and isolation data for a pure nitritethiosulfate are scarce in the literature. In most contexts, mixtures containing nitrite and thiosulfate are studied to understand redox behavior or to probe reaction pathways, rather than to produce a well-characterized, stable nitritethiosulfate compound.

See also: nitrite, thiosulfate, sulfur chemistry, tetrathionate.