Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Where to buy concentrated ammonia?

sbbspartan - 6-4-2012 at 08:24

I am looking for a way to get cheap concentrated ammonia. I got several bottles of "Great Value Ammonia" at walmart but it is only 2-3%. Is there a store such as menards or home depot or a website that sells it for cheap. Around 10, 20, or 30% would be good. I want it for a variety of experiments such as in making Schweizer's reagent to make rayon. Thanks for any info.

barley81 - 6-4-2012 at 08:33

http://www.elementalscientific.net/store/scripts/prodView.as...
(30% ammonia for $8/pint)

Ace Hardware sells 10% ammonia without surfactants.

DougTheMapper - 6-4-2012 at 09:18

Do you have a distillation apparatus? Heating household ammonia solution will release all the ammonia where it can be reabsorbed into some clean water until the desired concentration is reached.

You could add cheap HCl to the cheap ammonia and boil off most the water to get NH4Cl. This can be added to a basic solution of NaOH, Ca(OH)2, or similar to get the corresponding chloride salt and ammonia gas, which can be lead into chilled water to be absorbed.

Mailinmypocket - 6-4-2012 at 10:20

Quote: Originally posted by DougTheMapper  
Do you have a distillation apparatus? Heating household ammonia solution will release all the ammonia where it can be reabsorbed into some clean water until the desired concentration is reached.

You could add cheap HCl to the cheap ammonia and boil off most the water to get NH4Cl. This can be added to a basic solution of NaOH, Ca(OH)2, or similar to get the corresponding chloride salt and ammonia gas, which can be lead into chilled water to be absorbed.


Woelen has an interesting page describing how to concentrate regular ammonia, to about twice the original strength according to what it says.

http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/exps/concentratin...

Adas - 6-4-2012 at 12:24

You can make tons of ammonia solution by reacting any amonium salt with NaOH, and passing the ammonia gas into tap (or distilled) water.

m1tanker78 - 6-4-2012 at 17:56

One of my favorites is Ammonium Sulfate(aq) + hydrated lime (cheap!).

The dilute stuff (with surfactant) foams a lot so you need a tall column if you go that route.

Ammonium chloride is a pain in the butt to work with IMO.

Tank

ldanielrosa - 6-4-2012 at 23:51

Try a store that sells to contractors- some have 30% ammonia for blueprint duplication.

ldanielrosa - 6-4-2012 at 23:58

Try a store that sells to contractors- some have 30% ammonia for blueprint duplication.