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Posted

Why is ammonia volatile? Also, why is silver nitrate AgNO3 and sodium chloride NaCl non-volatile? I also don't understand the relationship between the volatile nature of a solid and the boiling point elevation? Much appreciated for help :)

Posted

Ammonia has a simple molecular structure. Moreover, it is a gas.

It vibrates faster than the water molecules and the attractive force is not very strong enough, so they easily escape.

Posted

Yep... that's right.

 

NH3 is a gas at room temperature.

 

What you are probably thinking of is ammonia hydroxide (I think), basically ammonia dissolved in water, it's chemical composition is NH4OH however some people refer to it as NH3 which is technically wrong.

 

Household ammonia is actually NH4OH (the liquid form). However people still call it "ammonia".

 

Pure ammonia (NH3) is a gas.

Posted

Is NaCl and AgN3 non-volatile because of its non-polar molecular structure, also? Much appreciated for help.

Posted

No those two substances are so polar that they are classed as ionic. The bonds between ions form a crystal lattice that is stronger still then standard polar substances. This sort of stuff can be confusing so i'll give you some examples.

Non-polar (CL2 or O2) Both gases at room temperature

Polar (HCL or CO2) Still gases at room temperature but have higher boilingpoints

Polar with Hydrogen bonding (H2O or CHOOH) Liquids at room temperature thought volitile. Hydrogen bonding occurs when the very polar bond creates a partial positive charge on the H the H then bonds though weeking to a lone pair of electrons on either O, N, or F. This helps hold substances with this structure together increasing the bond stregth.

Ionic (NaCl or Fe2O3) Very high metling/boiling points. Generally you will be thought that an ionic substance is always metal-nonmetal bonding this is not true it is actualy due to the differenece in electronegativities (HF) is an example of ionic between two non-metals. Hope that helped

 

~Scott

Posted
Yep... that's right.

 

NH3 is a gas at room temperature.

 

What you are probably thinking of is ammonia hydroxide (I think)' date=' basically ammonia dissolved in water, it's chemical composition is NH4OH however some people refer to it as NH3 which is technically wrong.

 

Household ammonia is actually NH4OH (the liquid form). However people still call it "ammonia".

 

Pure ammonia (NH3) is a gas.[/quote']

 

You've got that a bit opposite there. Household ammonia is simply ammonia gas dissolved in water. NH4OH doesn't exist. It's just that if you have a solution of ammonia gas in water, the ammonia is able to react with acids and accept a proton, thus forming NH4+. In reality, the compound NH4OH just isn't there. So ammonia itself is a gas, and household ammonia is a solution of that gas in water.

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