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Ammonium hydroxide(NH3[aq]), also known as ammonia water, aqua ammonia, or aqueous ammonia, is a solution of ammonia in water. 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 according to the following equilibrium:
- NH3 + H2O
NH4+ + OH−
With a base ionization constant (Kb) 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 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
External links
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 7 October 2008, at 23:50.
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