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Topic: Ammonium Chloride, Ionic or Molecular?  (Read 20401 times)

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Offline constant thinker

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Ammonium Chloride, Ionic or Molecular?
« on: May 03, 2007, 09:18:36 PM »
Is ammonium chloride (NH4Cl in case someone reads this and doesn't know the chemical formula) an ionic or molecular compound?

I'm leaning towards it being molecular because the difference in the electronegativity values of nitrogen and chlorine is .12.

The reason for me to questions this is the ammonium ion would be fairly electron dense. That simple thought makes wonder if an electron is completely transferred.

Thoughts anyone?
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Offline enahs

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Re: Ammonium Chloride, Ionic or Molecular?
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2007, 09:37:44 PM »
It is Ionic.

Most ammonium salts (such as ammonium chloride in this case) tend to resemble the salts of potassium and rubidium in structure as well as solubility, due to comparable ion radii.

Salts of the strong acids are fully ionized and the solutions are slightly acidic.

NH4Cl  <-> NH4+ Cl-     K~infinity
NH4+ + H2O  <->  NH3 + H3O+     K=5.5x10-10

Offline constant thinker

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Re: Ammonium Chloride, Ionic or Molecular?
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2007, 05:26:59 PM »
Ok thanks enahs. I understand why.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' " -Ronald Reagan

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