How does ammonium chloride react with water

Many reactions, such as burning fuel, are irreversible — they go to completion and cannot be reversed easily. Reversible reactions are different. In a reversible reaction, the products can react to produce the original reactants again. When writing chemical equations for reversible reactions, the usual one-way arrow is not used.

The top one points right, and the bottom one points left. For example:. The equation shows that ammonium chloride a white solid can break down to form ammonia and hydrogen chloride.

Physical reactions are reactions where the substance does not change into a new substance; for example, boiling is something seen in a physical change, which occurs in a physical reaction. Other examples include density , mass, and volume. Chemical reactions are reactions with chemical changes, such as bonds breaking. In chemical reactions new substances are formed and energy is given off or absorbed. Other examples include flammability, corrosiveness, and reactivity with acid.

With that, let's look at the equation this would form. Our reactants or what we started out with were ammonium chloride and water. What we ended up with was ammonia and hydrochloric acid.

As you can see, our reactants and products differed, meaning that ammonium chloride in water is a chemical reaction, NOT a physical reaction. The slightly acidic nature of ammonium chloride is due to the formation of hydrochloric acid HCl , because HCl is a strong acid and its effect is dominant.

Determine the acidic or basic nature by using a pH meter. Ammonium chloride is used as a fertilizer for growing crops like corn, wheat, barely and rice due to its higher ammonia content. Sushil Khadka has written business concepts since He also writes op-eds in campus-wide journals. Sushil's academic research works have been published in "American Chemical Society" and the "Journal of Physical Chemistry. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biological engineering from the University of Maine.