Ammonium chloride

“ When hydrogen chloride and ammonia enter into combination to form ammonium chloride, for example, do they combine in some special manner, molecularly, so that each molecule retains its individuality as a radicle in the new compound; or is a redistribution effected, so that the several atoms become arranged around the one which exercises the dominant influence much as they are in the parent compound ammonia? In the former case, two orders of affinity would come into operation; in the latter, only one. The general opinion has always been in favour of the latter view. ”

“ Ammonia is found in small quantities as the carbonate in the atmosphere, being produced from the putrefaction of nitrogenous animal and vegetable matter; ammonium salts are also found in small quantities in rain-water, whilst ammonium chloride (sal-ammoniac) and ammonium sulphate are found in volcanic districts; and crystals of ammonium bicarbonate have been found in Patagonian guano. Ammonium salts too are found distributed through all fertile soil, in sea-water, and in most plant and animal liquids, and also in urine. ”

“ The chemically pure chloride of ammonium may be prepared by bringing its gaseous constituents—ammonia and hydrochloric acid—into contact. During the combination much heat, and even light, is generated, and the anhydrous solid salt is precipitated in a minutely divided state, which, under the microscope, is seen to be crystalline. It may be also more easily and conveniently prepared by saturating pure and moderately dilute hydrochloric acid with ammonia or its carbonates, and evaporating the solution until a pellicle forms, when crystals of the chloride separate as the liquid cools. ”

“ The white precipitate formed by cold hydrochloric acid is boiled with water, and the solution filtered while hot. Any lead chloride dissolves, and may be identified by the yellow precipitate formed with potassium chromate. To the residue add ammonia, shake, then filter. Silver chloride goes into solution, and may be precipitated by dilute nitric acid. The residue, which is black in colour, consists of mercuroso-ammonium chloride, in which mercury can be confirmed by its ordinary tests. ”

“ In the last chapter we saw that nitrogen does not directly combine with hydrogen, but that a mixture of these gases in the presence of hydrochloric acid gas, HCl, forms ammonium chloride, NH4Cl, on the passage of a series of electric sparks. [1] In ammonium chloride, HCl is combined with NH3, consequently N with H3 forms ammonia. [2] Almost all the nitrogenous substances of plants and animals evolve ammonia when heated with an alkali. ”

“ An uncertainty within so wide a range does not justify the confidence of Mr. Greene which he expresses in these words: "It is, therefore, extremely probable that ammonium chloride is almost entirely dissociated, even at the temperature of volatilization." By Boettinger's apparatus a decomposition may possibly have been demonstrated, but it remains to be seen whether it is not due to some special cause. ”

“ Dry chlorine gas passed into melted urea decomposes it with formation of cyanuric acid and ammonium chloride, nitrogen and ammonia being simultaneously liberated. Alkaline hypobromites or hypochlorites or nitrous acid decompose urea into carbon dioxide and nitrogen. It is also decomposed by warm aqueous solutions of caustic alkalis, with evolution of ammonia and carbon dioxide. When heated with alcohol in sealed tubes, it yields carbamic esters; with alcohol and carbon bisulphide at 100° C., carbon dioxide is liberated and ammonium sulphocyanide is formed. ”

“ Dichloramine is unknown but nitrogen chloride has been prepared and is a highly explosive yellow oil that decomposes slowly when kept under water in the ice box. NCl3 can be easily prepared by passing chlorine gas into a solution of ammonium chloride and this process would suggest that a method might be found of utilising chlorine and ammonia as gases for the production of nitrogen trichloride as a germicide for water chlorination. ”

“ Sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride, British and United States pharmacopoeia) as used in medicine is a white crystalline odourless powder having a saline taste. It is soluble in 1 in 3 of cold water and in 1 in 50 of 90% alcohol. It is incompatible with carbonates of the alkalis. The dose is 5 to 20 grs. Ammonium chloride has a different action and therapeutic use from the rest of the ammonium salts. ”

“ Calculate the volume of magnesium ammonium chloride solution ("magnesia mixture") required to precipitate the phosphoric acid, assuming 40 per cent P_{2}O_{5} in the apatite. Measure out about 5 cc. in excess of this amount, and pour it into the acid solution. Then add slowly dilute ammonium hydroxide (1 volume of strong ammonia (sp. gr. 0.90) and 9 volumes of water) , stirring constantly until a precipitate forms. Then add a volume of filtered, concentrated ammonia (sp. gr. 0.90) equal to one third of the volume of liquid in the beaker (Note 1) . Allow the whole to cool. ”

“ The first successful manufacture of sal ammoniac in Great Britain was established in Edinburgh about the year 1760. It was first manufactured in France about the same time by A. Baumé. Manufactories of it were afterwards established in Germany, Holland and Flanders.
It is now obtained from the ammoniacal liquor of gas works by distilling the liquor with milk of lime and passing the ammonia so obtained into hydrochloric acid. The solution of ammonium chloride so obtained is evaporated and the crude ammonium chloride purified by sublimation. ”

“ The solution containing the uranium free from other metals is, if required, first peroxidised by boiling with nitric acid. Ammonia in slight excess is added to the nearly-boiling solution. A yellow precipitate is formed, which is filtered off hot and washed with a dilute solution of ammonium chloride. ”

“ By evaporating in vacuo the solution obtained by dissolving iron in hydrochloric acid, there results bluish, monoclinic crystals of FeCl2·4H2O, which deliquesce, turning greenish, on exposure to air, and effloresce in a desiccator. Other hydrates are known. By adding ammonium chloride to the solution, evaporating in vacuo, and then volatilizing the ammonium chloride, anhydrous ferrous chloride is obtained. The solution, in common with those of most ferrous salts, absorbs nitric oxide with the formation of a brownish solution. ”

“ NOTE: Sodium nitroprusside solution is lightsensitive. Store in and use from a brown bottle. 13. Calibration stock solution (100 mg NH 3/L) : Dissolve 0.3144 g anhydrous ammonium chloride, NH 4Cl, dried at 105 °C, in deionized water, and dilute to 1 L. Add 1 mL chloroform as a preservative.
1. Sampler: a. Prefilter (to remove particulate interferences) : 37-mm cellulose ester membrane filter (0.8-μm pore size) supported by stainless steel screen in two piece cassette filter holder. b. Sulfuric acid-treated silica gel sampling tubes. ”

“ By sublimation with chloride of sodium, the sulphate of ammonium is converted, by double decomposition, into chloride of ammonium, which sublimes; and sulphate of sodium, which remains in the subliming pot. A similar change occurs when the solution of the sulphate, prior to crystallisation, is decomposed by the addition of chloride of sodium, or any other chloride. When the ‘gas-liquor’ is at once converted into chloride of ammonium by the addition of hydrochloric acid, the sublimation merely purifies the salt. Like changes occur when bone-spirit is employed. ”

“ The filtrate from this last is directly treated with chlorine. If nickel and cobalt are not to be estimated in this sample, the solution, as chlorides, is mixed with some chloride of ammonium and ammonia, then with a fair excess of phosphoric acid, a sufficient quantity more of ammonia to render the mixture alkaline. The precipitate formed is transferred to the filter and well washed with water containing NH3Cl and NH4O, then dissolved in hydrochloric acid and reprecipitated with ammonia, filtering and washing as before. ”

“ The same volume of ammonia was next run into the ammonium chloride solution, and both were made up to 100 cub. centims. This gave solutions whose strengths were 0.1 monad grm. equivalent per litre. Their specific resistances were found by the method used by Kohlrausch and Fitzpatrick, and came out (for the CuCl2) and (for the NH4C1) in C.G.S. units for the cubic centimetre.
The solutions were carefully run into the velocity tubes, and the current sent through them and a low-resistance galvanometer in series. ”

“ It begins, however, not with ready-made ammonium bicarbonate, but with the substances from which it is formed—ammonia, water and carbon dioxide—which are made to act on sodium chloride. In practice the process is carried out as follows. A nearly saturated solution of sodium chloride is obtained by purifying natural or artificial brine, i.e. an impure solution of common salt, especially removing the alkaline earths and so forth by addition of sodium or ammonium carbonate and settling out the precipitate formed. ”

“ Without the addition of the chloride of ammonium it is impossible to expel the last portion of the water without at the same time driving off the chlorine, in which case nothing but magnesia is left. The fused mass should be poured out on a clean stone, and when solid broken into pieces, and at once transferred to a warm, dry bottle. The P. Cod. orders the solution to be evaporated to the sp. gr. 1·384, and to be put, whilst still hot, into a wide-mouthed flask to crystallise.—Dose, 1 to 4 dr.; as a laxative. ”

“ Ammonium is only a conjectural metal. Ammonia, of which we have already treated, is so like a metallic oxide that chemists have come to the conclusion that its compounds contain a metallic body, which they have named hypothetically Ammonium. It is usually classed amongst the alkaline metals. The salts of ammonia are important, and have already been mentioned. Muriate (chloride) of ammonia, or sal-ammoniac, is analogous to chloride of sodium and chloride of potassium. It is decomposed by heating it with slaked lime, and then gaseous ammonia is given off. ”

“ It is known to be a salt of ammonium by its cooling ammoniacal fumes when triturated with lime, or when moistened with caustic potassa or soda:—2. It is shown to be a chloride by its solution yielding, with nitrate of silver, a white curdy precipitate, insoluble in boiling nitric acid, soluble in ammonia.
Uses, &c. In the arts, chiefly in the coating and soldering of metals, and the preparation of alloys; in dyeing; and in the manufacture of ammonia-alum; also, in large quantities, to give a factitious pungency to snuff. In chemistry, as a reagent ”

“ The salts of ammonium formed by it may be removed by igniting, or by evaporating in a porcelain dish with an excess of nitric acid. It differs in a marked way from soda or potash in its solvent action on the oxides or hydrates of the metals. Salts of the following metals are soluble in an ammoniacal solution in the presence of ammonic chloride:—copper, cadmium, silver, nickel, cobalt, manganese, zinc, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and the alkaline earths.
Dilute Ammonia is made by diluting 1 vol. of commercial ammonia with 2 of water. The dilute ammonia is always used ”

“ The residue is extracted by absolute alcohol, which dissolves the hydroxylamine hydrochloride and a little ammonium chloride; this last substance is removed as ammonium platino-chloride, and the residual hydroxylamine hydrochloride is recrystallized. E. Divers obtains it by mixing cold saturated solutions containing one molecular proportion of sodium nitrate, and two molecular proportions of acid sodium sulphite, and then adding a saturated solution of potassium chloride to the mixture. After standing for twenty-four hours, hydroxylamine potassium disulphonate crystallizes out. ”

“ Sulphuretted hydrogen, sulphide of ammonium, and carbonate of ammonium, do not affect them. A solution of tartaric acid, added in excess, to moderately strong neutral or alkaline solutions of potassium salts, gives a quickly subsiding, gritty or crystalline, white precipitate, which is redissolved on heating the liquid, and again separates as it cools; and is also soluble in aqueous solutions containing free alkali, or free mineral acids. Platinic chloride produces, in neutral and acid solutions, a yellow crystalline precipitate. ”

“ A similar salt is known for ammonium, and with hydrochloric acid it gives a salt of the second kind, Pt (NH4) 2 (SO3) 2,H2O. If ammonio-chloride of platinum be added to an aqueous solution of sulphurous anhydride, it is first deoxidised, and chlorine is evolved, forming a salt of the type PtX2; a double decomposition then takes place with the ammonium sulphite, and a salt of the composition Pt (NH4) 2Cl3 (SO3H) is formed (in a desiccator) . The acid character of this substance is explained by the fact that it contains the elements SO3H—sulphoxyl, with the hydrogen not yet displaced by a metal. ”

“ A solution is produced which contains ferric hydrate dissolved in ferric chloride, with free chloride of ammonium. Either the liquor ferri perchlor. fort. (B. P.) , or the liquor ferri chloridi (U. S.) , may be conveniently used, and the liquor ammoniæ, sp. gr. ·959 or ·960, of either Pharmacopœia will be found a convenient strength. If the ammonia be added to the strong solution of iron, considerable heat is evolved, and, on cooling, the preparation becomes gelatinised—often so much so that the vessel containing it may be inverted. ”