Question

Question #ee8bb

Answer 1

Yes, it is.

Explanation:

Ammonium nitrate is indeed an acidic salt. Here's why.

Ammonium nitrate is soluble in water, which implies that it dissociates completely in aqueous solution to produce ammonium cations, `"NH"_4^(+)`, and nitrate anions, `"NO"_3^(-)`.

`"NH"_ 4"NO"_ (3(aq)) -> "NH"_ (4(aq))^(+) + "NO"_ (3(aq))^(-)`

Now, the ammonium cation acts as a weak acid in aqueous solution, meaning that it can donate its proton to a water molecule to form hydronium cations, `"H"_3"O"^(+)`, and ammonia, `"NH"-3`, a weak base.

`"NH"_ (4(aq))^(+) + "H"_ 2"O"_ ((l)) rightleftharpoons "NH"_ (3(aq)) + "H"_ 3"O"_ ((aq))^(+)`

Since the presence of the ammonium cations in solution causes an increase in the concentration of the hydronium cations, which, consequently, causes the `"pH"` of the solution to decrease compared with that of pure water at the same temperature, you can say that ammonium nitrate is an acidic salt.

In fact, the `"pH"` of an ammonium nitrate solution at room temperature is equal to `5.25` `->` see here for more info on that.

Also, note that the nitrate anion does not hydrolyze because nitric acid si a strong acid, which implies that the nitrate anion cannot accept a proton from a water molecule

`color(red)(cancel(color(black)("NO"_ (3(aq))^(-) + "H"_ 2"O"_ ((l)) -> "HNO"_ (3(aq)) + "OH"_ ((aq))^(-))))`