Almost all of us have studied various types of ammonia reactions in our chemistry classes. Ammonia is a composite of nitrogen and hydrogen. Its chemical formula is NH3. Ammonia is a colourless gas. It has a very sharp, piercing and bitter odour. Breath in of this toxic, acidic and reactive gas can make sick in fact. It is produced both by nature and by humans. The amount produced by humans each year is same as that produced by nature. It dissolves easily in water and evaporates quickly. Ammonia is irritating when exposed to eyes, lungs, nose, skin and throat. In extreme conditions, it may cause death.

When ammonia reacts with water, it dissolves to produce ammonium ions and hydroxide ions. This is a reversible reaction. An aqueous solution of ammonia is basic in nature. Ammonia reacting with water in aqueous state is called as liquor ammonia. Ammonia is highly soluble in water. Even in low temperature the ammonia melts easily. When ammonia reacts with oxygen, it forms N2 and water.

Ammonia reacts with stains and cleans it. Weak ammonia solution is widely used for other household uses. It is a great stain remover too. It even cleans blood stains, pen marks, carpet stains caused by wine and stains done by pets, food or drinks.
It can remove lime scales formed in the sinks, bathtubs and tiles. Ammonia is considered the main ingredient in many fertilizers. It has been used as water purifier, rocket fuel and as a food processing preservative in industries. Blemishes from the silver, gold ornaments and brass can also be cleaned using this ammonia reactions.

Ammonia reacts with dirt and acts a great oven cleaner. Keep a bowl of ammonia in the oven overnight and then next day you can easily clean the oven without any effort. Make a note to ventilate the room before using ammonia. If the ammonia is mixed with household cleaning agents or bleach then ammonia reacts to form toxic gases, which is very dangerous.

There are some very important products, which are formed from the ammonia reactions. Urea is made from the combination of ammonia and carbon dioxide that is used as extra nourishment for domestic animals, which helps in producing protein in animals. Using ammonia all the important nitrogen chemicals is prepared. Explosives like cartridges for machine guns and rifles, gunpowder; TNT, etc are manufactured using nitric acid and nitrates. Ammonia reacts with acids to form salts. These salts are known as ammonium salts, sometime used on a fainted person to wake senses.

Ammonia is used mainly for many biological processes. Most of it is used to make fertilizers and rest of it is used to make explosives, refrigerants, paper production, textiles, food and beverages, etc. An ammonia reaction is used for manufacturing several alkalies like drugs; vitamins, sulfa drugs, synthetic fabric fibres; acrylic, rayon and nylon; dyes; and to manufacture certain plastics like polyurethanes and phenolics. Soil and the ammonia reacts together to yield fine corps like soyabean, wheat, corn, etc. If you mix ammonia with water and feed it to plants, it works as a great food for the plants. It is good only on alkaline plants like lilac.