Basic Chemistry of Nitric Oxide and Related Nitrogen Oxides

The general purpose of this chapter is to briefly recall the basic chemistry of NO•, especially its own paramagnetism and that of some of the complexes it forms with transition metals. As a full review is out of our scope, we shall only mention data that could be useful to understand the following chapters. In particular we shall attempt to compile some kinetic data which can enable us to propose whether a given reaction between NO• and a molecular target could be relevant to the biology of a cell or an animal.