Difference Between Liquid Ammonia and Liquor Ammonia

The key difference between liquid ammonia and liquor ammonia is that the liquid ammonia contains NH3 molecules, while the liquor ammonia contains NH4OH.

Both liquid and liquor ammonia are in the liquid state. They differ from each other according to the chemical composition as well as the chemical and physical properties.

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Liquid Ammonia
3. What is Liquor Ammonia
4. Similarities Between Liquid Ammonia and Liquor Ammonia
5. Side by Side Comparison – Liquid Ammonia vs Liquor Ammonia in Tabular Form
6. Summary

What is Liquid Ammonia?

Liquid ammonia is NH3 in a liquid state. NH3 is ammonia. It has three hydrogen atoms bound to the same nitrogen atom. Also, this compound has a lone electron pair. And, it is a binary halide. Further, this compound occurs as a colourless gas, and it has a pungent, irritating odour. The geometry of this compound is trigonal pyramidal. The molar mass of ammonia is 17 g/mol.

Difference Between Liquid Ammonia and Liquor Ammonia

Figure 01: Mixing Liquid Ammonia with HCl Fumes to get Ammonium Chloride

In nature, we can find this gas as a trace compound formed from nitrogenous waste and nitrogenous animal and plant matter. When considering the uses, about 88% of ammonia is used for fertilizer production. It is also useful as a precursor for nitrogenous compounds. In fermentation processes, ammonia is useful as a nitrogen source for microorganisms. Aqueous ammonia is also important as a cleaner in household applications.

What is Liquor Ammonia?

Liquor ammonia is ammonia in water. Therefore, this solution contains NH4OH molecules formed from the reaction between ammonia and water molecules. In common terms, we name this solution as an ammonia solution. Moreover, the correct denotation of this solution is NH3(aq). However, in aqueous solutions, ammonia molecules tend to deprotonated due to the effect of water molecules and occurs in equilibrium with ammonium hydroxide. Therefore, when we refer to liquor ammonia, we are talking about an ammonium hydroxide solution. The molar mass of this solution can be given as 35.04 g/mol.

When considering the applications, this solution is important as a cleaner in households, as a precursor to alkyl amines, in food production as a leavening product, treatment of straw for cattle, in the production of monochloramine, which is useful as a disinfectant etc.

What are the Similarities Between Liquid Ammonia and Liquor Ammonia

Liquid ammonia and liquor ammonia contain NH3.
Both are in liquid form.
They are useful as cleaners.

What is the Difference Between Liquid Ammonia and Liquor Ammonia?

Both liquid and liquor ammonia are in the liquid state. Liquid ammonia has only ammonia molecules, but liquor ammonia has both ammonia and water. The key difference between liquid ammonia and liquor ammonia is that liquid ammonia contains NH3 molecules while liquor ammonia contains NH4OH. Further, liquid ammonia is used for fertilizer production, as a nitrogen source for microorganisms in fermentation, etc. while liquor ammonia is important as a cleaner in the household, as a precursor to alkyl amines, in food production as a leavening product, treatment of straw for cattle, etc.

The below infographic summarizes the difference between liquid ammonia and liquor ammonia.

Summary – Liquid Ammonia vs Liquor Ammonia

Both liquid and liquor ammonia are in the liquid state. However, the liquid ammonia has only ammonia molecules, but the liquor ammonia has both ammonia and water. The key difference between liquid ammonia and liquor ammonia is that the liquid ammonia contains NH3 molecules, while the liquor ammonia contains NH4OH.

Reference:

1. Tu, Yaoquan, and Aatto Laaksonen. “Implementing Quantum Mechanics into Molecular Mechanics—Combined QM/MM Modeling Methods.” Advances in Quantum Chemistry Combining Quantum Mechanics and Molecular Mechanics. Some Recent Progresses in QM/MM Methods, 2010, pp. 1–15., doi:10.1016/s0065-3276(10)59001-4.
2.“Ammonia.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Oct. 2019, Available here.
3. “Ammonia Solution.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Sept. 2019, Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Hydrochloric acid ammonia” Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Ammonia (“Salmiakk”), bleach (“Klorin”) and other cleaning products aisle in Coop Extra supermarket, Bergen Stormarked Shopping Mall, Norway 2017-10-25 a” By Wolfmann – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia