Quantum chemical calculations are used to estimate the equilibrium N-NO bond dissociation energies (BDEs) for 15 NO-donor molecules in acetonitrile. These compounds are studied by employing the hybrid density functional theory (B3LYP, B3PW91, B3P86) methods together with 6-31G^∗∗ basis set. The basis set superposition error (BSSE) and zero-point vibrational energy (ZPVE) are considered. The results are compared with the available experimental results. It is demonstrated that B3LYP/6-31G$^{\ast\ast}$ is accurate to compute the reliable BDEs for the NO-donor molecules. The solvent effects on the N-NO BDEs are analysed and the result shows that the N-NO BDEs in a vacuum computed by B3P86/6-31G^∗∗ method are the closest to the computed values in acetontrile and the average solvent effect is 0.78 kcal/mol. Subsequently, the substituent effects on the N-NO BDEs are further analysed and it is found that electron donating group stabilizes the radical and as a result BDE decreases; whereas electron withdrawing group stabilizes the ground state of the molecule and thus increases the BDE.