What is the balanced chemical equation that describes the reaction between ammonia and hydrochloric acid?
Answer:
\(\mathrm{NH}_{3(a q)}+\mathrm{HCl}_{(a q)} \rightarrow \mathrm{NH}_{4} \mathrm{Cl}_{(a q)}\)
Explanation:
Ammonia and hydrochloric acid will react to form aqueous ammonium chloride, \(\mathrm{NH}_{4} \mathrm{Cl} \text {, }\) as described by the balanced chemical equation,
\(\mathrm{NH}_{3(a q)}+\mathrm{HCl}_{(a q)} \rightarrow \mathrm{NH}_{4} \mathrm{Cl}_{(a q)}\).
Now, hydrochloric acid is a strong acid, which means that it dissociates completely in aqueous solution to release hydrogen ions,
\(\mathrm{H}^{+},\) and produce chloride anions, \(\mathrm{Cl}^{-}\)
\(\mathrm{HCl}_{(a q)} \rightarrow \mathrm{H}_{(a q)}^{+}+\mathrm{Cl}_{(a q)}^{-}\)Ammonium chloride is a soluble ionic compound, so it too will exist as ions in solution. This means that the complete ionic equation that describes this reaction can be written like this
\(\mathrm{NH}_{3(a q)}+\mathrm{H}_{(a q)}^{+}+\mathrm{Cl}_{(a q)}^{-} \rightarrow \mathrm{NH}_{4(a q)}^{+}+\mathrm{Cl}_{(a q)}^{-}\).
To get the net ionic equation, you must remove the spectator ions, i.e. the ions present on both sides of the equation
You will end up with,