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Ammonium carbonate

Names
IUPAC name Ammonium carbonate
Other names baker's ammonia sal volatile salt of hartshorn E503
Identifiers
CAS Number	506-87-6 Y
3D model (JSmol)	Interactive image
ChemSpider	10048 Y
ECHA InfoCard	100.007.326
EC Number	233-786-0
E number	E503(i) (acidity regulators, ...)
IUPHAR/BPS	4509
PubChem CID	517111
UNII	PDP691CN28 Y
UN number	3077
InChI InChI=1S/CH2O3.2H3N/c2-1(3)4;;/h(H2,2,3,4);2*1H3 Y Key: PRKQVKDSMLBJBJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N Y InChI=1/CH2O3.2H3N/c2-1(3)4;;/h(H2,2,3,4);2*1H3 Key: PRKQVKDSMLBJBJ-UHFFFAOYAQ
SMILES O=C(O)O.N.N
Properties
Chemical formula	(NH4)2CO3
Molar mass	96.09 g/mol
Appearance	White powder
Density	1.50 g/cm3
Melting point	58 °C (136 °F; 331 K)
Boiling point	Decomposes
Solubility in water	100g/100ml(20°C),decomposes in hot water
Magnetic susceptibility (χ)	-42.50·10−6 cm3/mol
Hazards
Main hazards	Irritant
Safety data sheet	External MSDS
GHS pictograms
GHS signal word	Warning
GHS hazard statements	H302, H319
Related compounds
Other anions	Ammonium bicarbonate Ammonium carbamate
Other cations	Sodium carbonate Potassium carbonate
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
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Infobox references

Ammonium carbonate is a salt with the chemical formula (NH₄)₂CO₃. Since it readily degrades to gaseous ammonia and carbon dioxide upon heating, it is used as a leavening agent and also as smelling salt. It is also known as baker's ammonia and was a predecessor to the more modern leavening agents baking soda and baking powder. It is a component of what was formerly known as sal volatile and salt of hartshorn.^[1]

Production

Ammonium carbonate is produced by combining carbon dioxide and aqueous ammonia. About 80000 tons/year were produced as of 1997.^[1]

Decomposition

Ammonium carbonate slowly decomposes at standard temperature and pressure through two pathways. Thus any initially pure sample of ammonium carbonate will soon become a mixture including various byproducts.

Ammonium carbonate can spontaneously decompose into ammonium bicarbonate and ammonia:

(NH₄)₂CO₃ → NH₄HCO₃ + NH₃

Uses

Leavening agent

Ammonium carbonate may be used as a leavening agent in traditional recipes, particularly those from northern Europe and Scandinavia (e.g. Speculoos, Tunnbröd or Lebkuchen). It was the precursor to today's more commonly used baking powder.

Originally made from ground deer horn and called hartshorn. Today it is called Baker's Ammonia. The ingredient ammonium carbonate is a mix of ammonium bicarbonate (NH₄HCO₃) and ammonium carbamate (NH₂COONH₄). It is prepared by the sublimation of a mixture of ammonium sulfate and calcium carbonate and occurs as a white powder or a hard, white or translucent mass.^[2] It acts as a heat activated leavening agent and breaks down into carbon dioxide (leavening), ammonia (which needs to dissipate) and water. It is sometimes combined with sodium bicarbonate to mimic as a double acting baking powder and to help mask any ammonia smell not baked out.

It also serves as an acidity regulator and has the E number E503. It can be replaced with baking powder, but this may affect both the taste and texture of the finished product. Baker's ammonia should be used to create thin dry baked goods like crackers and cookies. This allows the strong ammonia smell to bake out. It should not be used to make moist baked items like cake since ammonia is hydrophilic and will leave a strong bitter taste.

Its use as a leavening agent, with associated controversy, goes back centuries:

In the third kind of bread, a vesicular appearance is given to it by the addition to the dough of some ammoniacal salt, (usually the sub-carbonate,) which becomes wholly converted into a gaseous substance during the process of baking, causing the dough to swell out into little air vessels, which finally bursting, allow the gas to escape, and leave the bread exceedingly porous. Mr. Accum, in his Treatise on Culinary Poisons, has stigmatized this process as "fraudulent," but, in our opinion, most unjustly. The bakers would never adopt it but from necessity: when good yeast cannot be procured, it forms an admirable and perfectly harmless substitute; costing the baker more, it diminishes his profit, while the consumer is benefited by the bread retaining the solid matter, which by the process of fermentation is dissipated in the form of alcohol and carbonic acid gas.^[3]

Other uses

Ammonium carbonate is the main component of smelling salts, although the commercial scale of their production is small. Buckley's cough syrup from Canada today uses ammonium carbonate as an active ingredient intended to help relieve symptoms of bronchitis. It is also used as an emetic. It is also found in smokeless tobacco products, such as Skoal, and it is used in aqueous solution as a photographic lens cleaning agent, such as Eastman Kodak's "Kodak Lens Cleaner."

Substitute

A teaspoon of baker’s ammonia can be substituted with a teaspoon baking powder plus a teaspoon baking soda.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Ammonium bicarbonate


• Ammonium nitrate


• 
  Sal ammoniac, the mineralogical form of ammonium chloride

References