High pressure raman study of isotropic lineshapes of aqueous sodium nitrate solutions

The isotropic lineshape of the v₁ (A₁) stretching mode of the nitrate ion in solutions of sodium nitrate has been studied at 25°C as a function of NaNO₃ concentration ranging from 0.1 to 6M. The pressure dependence has been determined for 1 and 6M solutions at pressures ranging from 1 bar to 3 kbar. The isotropic band becomes more asymmetric with increasing concentration, and its v₁ peak frequency undergoes a blue shift both with increased concentration and increased pressure. At low concentration the vibrational correlation function is well described by the Kubo formula, whereas at higher concentration it becomes more Gaussian. The experimental data indicate that the v₁ vibrational lineshape in aqueous solutions of NaNO₃ is dominated by strong intermolecular interactions which produce inhomogeneous broadening at higher concentration.