Ammonium Bicarbonate

About This Product

Ammonium bicarbonate has the formula NH4HCO3 and CAS number 1066-33-7, supplied as white crystals with a faint ammonia odour, soluble in water and unstable to heat. That instability is the property it is bought for. Heated above about 36 degrees Celsius it begins to decompose, and by 60 degrees it breaks down entirely into ammonia, carbon dioxide and water vapour, all three gases. Nothing solid remains. In foamed rubber, plastic and ceramic manufacture that is precisely what a blowing agent must do: generate gas within the matrix to create cells, then disappear without leaving an inorganic residue that would weaken the product or discolour it. Inorganic blowing agents that leave a salt behind cannot match that. The same complete decomposition makes it a useful pore former in catalyst supports and ceramics, where it is mixed into the green body and burned out to leave controlled porosity. It is also used as a nitrogen fertiliser, though its instability limits storage, and in flue gas treatment and fire extinguishers. It is used as a blowing agent in rubber and plastics, a pore former in ceramics and catalysts, in fertilisers, dye and pigment manufacture and in fire extinguishers. Bio Green Chem supplies ammonium bicarbonate to specification on assay, ammonia content, chloride, sulfate, iron, insolubles and particle size.