Covalent structures and bonding
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When ammonia dissolve in water, will it form a dative covalent bond with water to become ammonium hydroxide, or will form an H-bond - and why?
Ulex says
It does both of those things. The molecules dissolve in water due to hydrogen bonding.
Abouyt one in a hundred ammonia molecules react with water molecules by dative covalent bonding, to give a solution containing ammonium ions and hydroxide ions.
Notice that ammonium hydroxide only exists in solution. That’s why such a solution is often just called ammonia solution. The solution contains mainly ammonia molecules with a small proportion of oxonium ions and hydroxide ions.
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updated: 20 January 2006
