Liquid Ammonia - 16% To 25% Concentration | Ionising Solvent For Textile Treatment Wood Darkening And Fermentation Applications

Liquid Ammonia is the best-known and most widely studied nonaqueous ionising solvent. Its most conspicuous property is its ability to dissolve alkali metals to form highly coloured electrically conductive solutions containing solvated electrons. Apart from these remarkable solutions much of the chemistry in liquid ammonia can be classified by analogy with related reactions in aqueous solutions.

Liquid ammonia is an ionising solvent although less so than water and dissolves a range of ionic compounds and thiocyanates. Most ammonium salts are soluble and act as acids in liquid ammonia solutions. The solubility of halide salts increases from fluoride to iodide.

Textile

Liquid ammonia is used for treatment of cotton materials give a properties like mercerisation using alkalies. In particular it is used for prewashing of wool.

Ammonia has been used to darken quartersawn white oak in Arts & Crafts and Mission-style furniture. Ammonia fumes react with the natural tannins in the wood and cause it to change colours

Fermentation

Solutions of ammonia ranging from 16% to 25% are used in the fermentation industry as a source of nitrogen for microorganisms and to adjust pH during fermentation.