Ammonium hydroxide

Overview

Main article: ammonia

Ammonium hydroxide(NH₄OH), also known as ammonia water, aqua ammonia, or aqueous ammonia, is a solution of ammonia in water. Technically, the use of the term "ammonium hydroxide" is incorrect because such a chemical compound is not isolatable. However, this term does give a fair description of how an ammonia solution behaves, and is commonly used even by scientists and engineers.

Chemistry

In aqueous solution, ammonia deprotonates some small fraction of the water to give ammonium and hydroxide ions according to the following equilibrium:

NH₃ + H₂O <math>\rightleftharpoons</math> NH₄⁺ + OH^-

With a base ionization constant (K_b) of 1.8×10^-5, in a 1M ammonia solution about 0.42% of the ammonia will gain protons to become ammonium ions (equivalent to a pH of 11.63).

Aqueous ammonia is used in traditional qualitative inorganic analysis. Like many amines, it gives a deep blue coloration with copper(II) solutions. Ammonia solution can dissolve silver residues, such as that formed from Tollens' reagent.

Solutions of ammonium can also dissolve reactive metals such as aluminum and zinc, with the liberation of hydrogen gas. When ammonium hydroxide is mixed with dilute hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a metal ion, such as Cu²⁺, the peroxide will undergo rapid decomposition

See also

• Common chemicals
• Conjugate acid

External links

• Ammonium hydroxide physical properties