ammonium chloride
1
4.6
- noun
- /əˈmɒn.i.əm klɔːrˈaɪd/
- Specialized
:
cloruro de amonio
- In laboratories, ammonium chloride is frequently utilized in chemical processes and reactions.
Examples
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So now we've made ammonium chloride, right?
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Ammonium chloride compounds are safer to use than most other disinfectants because they are less toxic and cause less irritation to the mucus membranes.
Academic text (1994) -
Ammonium chloride is commonly used as an electrolyte in dry cell batteries.
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Many household cleaners contain ammonium chloride for its effective disinfecting properties.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A white salt used in old batteries, some medicines, and for cleaning metal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The name is a systematic chemical compound label: combining 'ammonium' (NH4+ ion) and 'chloride' (Cl–/chlorine-containing anion) transparently denotes the salt formed by those ions. Given knowledge of both constituents, a learner can infer this is a chemical compound (a salt, typically crystalline), and chemical naming conventions are cross-linguistically consistent, so the meaning is compositional.
Etymology
Ammonium chloride gets its name from two parts: ammonium, from the old name 'sal ammoniac' for a salt found near the temple of Amun in Egypt, and chloride, meaning a salt that contains chlorine. So the name gives the simple picture of a white 'salt' made from the ammonium part and chlorine, which fits why ammonium chloride is a white salt used in medicine and in some batteries.