Question

What is the balanced chemical equation that describes the reaction between ammonia and hydrochloric acid?

Answer 1

This reaction is used for the synthesis of ammonium chloride. It is an acid-base reaction where hydrochloric acid acts as acid and ammonia acts as base. The resulting product is white crystalline solid with no smell. This reaction is a neutralization reaction which is also exothermic in nature as the reaction releases heat in the surrounding.

Complete answer:
Ammonia and hydrochloric acid react to form ammonium chloride $(N{H_4}Cl)$ . The balanced chemical reaction can be written as - $N{H_3}(aq) + HCl(aq) \to N{H_4}Cl(aq)$

The hydrochloric acid $(HCl)$ is strong acid, thus, dissociates into chloride and hydrogen ions. As hydrochloric acid is a strong acid, the dissociation is complete. Now, ammonia is an ionic substance soluble in water, so it will also exist in ionic form. The ion formation can be given as - $N{H_3}(aq) + {H^ + }(aq) \to NH_4^ +$

There are two ions present in mixture are chloride ion (negatively charged) and ammonium ion (positively charged), so both will participate in an ionic reaction. Now, both chloride ions and ammonium ions both react to form ammonium chloride. The ionic reaction can be finalized as – $N{H_3}(aq) + HCl(aq) \to N{H_4}Cl(aq)$ .

Note:
Concentrated hydrochloric acid and ammonia, both are corrosive in nature, so the handling should be careful. Ammonium chloride is quite similar in appearance with sodium chloride, the differentiation can be done by heating, ammonium chloride is sublime while sodium chloride is not, thus ammonium chloride will evaporate but sodium chloride remains.