Coroded Electrical Contacts Restore

years, and

are

equipment has

According to the chemists, ammonia is a weak acid. (So weak that some think it is an alkali). I recently found a duracell that leaked in something i have. Merely used some window cleaner to remove the gunk. Shelf life OK, useful life once installed questionable.

YMMV

?-)

Accord "Although ammonia is well known as a weak base, it can also act as an //extremely// weak acid. It is a protic substance and is capable of formation of amides (which contain the NH2? ion)."

So it appears to depend on the reaction.

Here's something else from Wikipedia. Remember litmus paper?

"The main use of litmus is to test whether a solution is acidic or basic. Wet litmus paper can also be used to test water-soluble gases; the gas dissolves in the water and the resulting solution colors the litmus paper. For instance, ammonia gas, which is alkaline, colors the red litmus paper blue."

basic. Wet

dissolves

instance,

Well you are allowed to trot out all the low grade references you wish. Do better fact checking and you will find out that ammonia is indeed a weak acid. See also Lewis acid e. g. BF3 which has no hydrogen at all.

?-)

To call Wikipedia a low-grade reference is a cheap shot. As for fact-checking, do some yourself.

These consistently identify ammonia (NH3) as a weak base, according to the Bronsted-Lowry definition.

When NH3 reacts with water, the NH3 accepts a proton from the water and generates the ammonium ion (NH4+, a weak acid), and the hydroxide ion (OH-). The fact that NH3 accepts a proton in this reaction is what defines it as a Bronsted-Lowry base.

According to

NH3 is at least somewhat amphiprotic - in some reactions it can donate a proton (acting as an acid) rather than accepting one.

According to

"ammonia, is a weaker acid than H2O, so it exhibits basic properties in water

NH3 + H2O ? NH4+ + OH?

but behaves as an acid in non-aqueous solvents such as liquid ammonia itself:

NH3 + NH3 ? NH4+ + NH2? "

and also says

"Ammonia is such a weak acid that its conjugate base, amide ion NH2?, cannot exist in water. In aqueous solution, NH3 acts as a weak base, accepting a proton from water and leaving a OH? ion"

So, the answer to the question "Is ammonia a base or an acid" appears to be "either or both, depending on the circumstances."

It's not an either/or sort of thing.

It's great for shining brass!

Thank you for taking the time to clarify this.

And I admit to being surprised that such a simple molecule can be a proton receptor under one set of conditions, a donor under others.

wish. Do

weak

fact-checking,

base/index.htm

Interesting. I am corrected, more or less. It was another earlier odd change to shift from thinking of it a weak base to a very weak acid. It took about the same grade of information then as well.

NH2?,