Learn About the Chemical Reactivity of Ammonia with Halogen

When halogenoalkanes (haloalkanes or alkyl halides) react with ammonia. A concentrated ammonia solution in ethanol is used to heat the halogenoalkane. This mixture couldn’t be heated at reflux since the ammonia will just exit as a gas up the condensate. As just a primary halogenoalkane, we’ll use 1-bromoethane to discuss the reaction. If you use a secondary or tertiary halogenoalkane instead, the specifics of the reaction do not change. The equations might simply appear to be more difficult than they actually are! You’ll end up with a sequence of amines and their salts.

Ammonia Reaction with Alkyl Halides

1. Making a Primary Amine

There are two phases to the reaction. A salt is generated in the first phase, in this case ethylammonium bromide. This is identical to ammonium bromide, with the exception that an ethyl group replaces one of its hydrogens in the ammonium ion.

CH3 CH2  Br + NH3 → CH3 CH2 NH3+ + Br–

There’s a chance that this salt as well as the extra ammonia in the combination will have a reversible reaction.

CH3 CH2 NH3+ + NH3 ⇌ CH3 CH2NH2 + NH4+ Br–

Ammonia takes away a hydrogen ion from ethylammonium ion, resulting in ethylamine, a primary amine. The forward reaction is favoured the more ammonia is present in the mixture.

2. Making a Secondary Amine

The reaction does not come to a halt when it reaches a primary amine. In the very same two steps as before, ethylamine interacts with bromoethane. In the first stage, readers get a salt formed – this time, diethylammonium bromide. Consider ammonium bromide having ethyl groups instead of two hydrogens.

A reversible interaction between such a salt and the excess ammonia in the mixture is possible once more.

Ammonia eliminates a hydrogen ion from the diethylammonium ion, resulting in diethylamine, a secondary amine. A secondary amine is one where the nitrogen has 2 alkyl groups connected to it.

3. Making a Tertiary Amine

But it’s just going on! In the same 2 stages as before, diethylamine reacts with bromoethane. Triethylammonium bromide is obtained during the first phase.

A reversible interaction between such a salt and the excess ammonia in the mixture is possible once more.

Ammonia eliminates a hydrogen ion from the triethylammonium ion, resulting in the formation of triethylamine, a tertiary amine. 3 alkyl groups are connected to the nitrogen in a tertiary amine.

4. Making a Quaternary Ammonium salt

It’s the final stretch! Tetraethylammonium bromide, a quaternary ammonium salt, is formed when triethylamine interacts with bromoethane (one in which all four hydrogens have been replaced by alkyl groups).

Overview of ammonia

Ammonia, sometimes known as azane, is a nitrogen-hydrogen chemical with the formula NH3 . It’s a colourless gas with a distinctive strong odour that’s sometimes found in toilets. It’s employed in business and trade, and it’s found in humans and the environment naturally. Ammonia is a precursor for amino acid and nucleotide synthesis and is required for numerous biological functions. Ammonia is a component of the nitrogen cycle in the environment, and it is created in soil by bacterial activities. Ammonia is also derived from natural sources when organic stuff, such as plants and animals, decomposes.

Ammonia in fertilisers

Plants provide half of the protein needed to feed the world’s population, and the nitrogen content of fertilisers has a direct impact on a plant’s ability to create protein. Nitrogen is required for the production of this protein by plants. Ammonia is the sole viable source of nitrogen for large-scale protein production. Fertilisers with high nitrogen content boost the quantity and quality of protein-rich crops. Ammonia is utilised as a fertiliser in 83 percent of cases (as of 2004), either as salts, solutions, or anhydrous.

While ammonia can be put directly to the roots as a liquid or combined with CO2 to make urea ((NH2)2CO) fertiliser, the Ostwald Procedure, which uses platinum gauze as a catalyst, converts a major portion of it to nitric acid (HNO3). The nitric acid is then converted into ammonium nitrate (NH4 NO3 ), potassium nitrate (KNO3 ), and calcium nitrate (Ca(NO3 )2 ), among other nitrate fertilisers. Ammonia could also be used to make fertilisers such as ammonium phosphate (NH4 PO4) and ammonium sulphate ((NH4 )2 SO4).

Direct ammonia amination of aryl halides

A nucleophilic aromatic substitutions of the respective aryl halides is the classic homogenous approach to aromatic amine derivatives. Unless it is activated by the presence of electron withdrawing groups, the halogen atom is normally largely inert to the amination reaction. As a result, the production of metal compounds that are efficient catalysts for the manufacture of aromatic amines has received a lot of attention in the last decade.

Conclusion

Anhydrous liquid ammonia has a higher volumetric energy density than hydrogen, which gives it a significant advantage. Even when the reduced heating value loss is taken into account, the overall amount of energy consumed for its manufacture and transmission to customers is anticipated to be much less than for liquid hydrogen transportation. These benefits would be especially useful to vehicles hauling significant amounts of freight in terms of storage.