NH3 purification questions???

I've been hornswaggled twice now by stupid companies that call their ammonia 'Pure'Ammonia. But this stuff leaves a slight amount of residue when I tested it by evaporating it. I was just wondering if the ammonia most have been using is the store bought kind and then they purify it, or is it ok to use as is?  

Now I pretty much know its not ok to use as is. So whats the deal?

Are most people just lucky and have a chemical supply house in their area?  

Maybe the surfactant can be heated in a 500ml boiling flask with either two necks or using something like the T-connecter that fits on top of the claisen adapter in most textbook distillation setups. 
So it will have the thermometer directly above the boiling flask and run the NH3 generated through some braided hose and into first a gas trp made out of anything glass and sealable (with nothing in this trap). 
Then running it from the 1st trap to a second trap with 125-250ml of distilled H2O in it.
Am i overlooking the obvious, like it's available from ...(BlanK)

Or what about lime (calcium hydroxide)?  Or would this leave behind a salt much the same as sodium hydroxide will when using HCl to acidify the rootbark.....  

Anyone?

0

💬 5 comments

5 Comments

wolfmoon· 02 Sept 2026

I just went to Ace Hardware and bought professional strength non-sudsy ammonia, and it's just fine. The water in it won't hurt..

0

calmridge84· 13 Sept 2026

You can make your own ammonia very easily by adding a base (i.e. lye drain cleaner) to an ammonium salt (i.e. ammonium sulphate fertilizer) then bubbling the NH3 through water. The ammonia solution you get will be as pure as the water you used and you can make it as concentrated as you want.

0

wolfmoon· 13 Sept 2026

Ace brand is 10% ammonium hydroxide, I believe it was, and it was plenty basic and pure (check the MSDS) the way it is. No need to give newbies anymore steps if they don't have to. Thanks for the chemistry tip, though!

0

calmridge84· 13 Sept 2026

The method of making ammonia I mentioned is somewhat dangerous (since it generates NH3 gas) and requires a bit of chemistry equipment anyway so I'd advise against it unless one has the right equipment and a bit of chemistry experience. I had a close call myself when I accidentally inhaled a significant amount of NH3 gas when I was cleaning out the reaction flask afterwards. Like Cl2 though, it will give you a fright the second you inhale a significant amount of it so it gives you adequate warning before you inhale dangerous amounts, unlike insidious gases such as CO. If in doubt about the purity of an OTC product, activated charcoal works wonders for cleaning chemicals.

0

calmridge84· 21 Sept 2026

I had some homemade NH3 solution lying around in the shed, I wasn't expecting it to be very concentrated but I gave it a smell and it burned my throat so it was pretty concentrated. This is the way to go in my opinion. You don't know what kind of contaminants might be in hardware store ammonia. However, with ammonia at least you can get an idea by doing an evaporation test.

0