Ammonium Ionic Standards and Their Uses

The ammonium ion (NH4+) is typically available as an aqueous standard from ammonium chloride, or other reagent with ammonium as a component of a salt. It is used in inorganic chemistry analysis to determine either ammonium or nitrogen from the source of ammonium chloride or other salt.

The inorganic standard is subject to decomposition by bacteria and is best kept in a refrigeration environment. Breakdown of the ammonium ion usually starts with conversion to nitrite, then can continue with another bacterium to nitrate.

The ammonium ion is commonly found in natural water bodies and wastewater environments, where it can sometimes build to levels which are toxic for aquatic life. The monitoring of these levels are vital and are maintained by environmental testing labs that perform inorganic aqueous analysis.

The ammonium ionic forms are also utilized as reagents in ammonia buffer solutions for a variety of laboratory testing and analysis. These buffers are used in analyses performed by plating labs, agricultural labs, pharmaceutical labs, environmental labs, medical labs, and many more.

Exaxol offers many kinds of ammonium standards, from stock 1000ppm to custom made ppm/micromilligram concentrations, all of which are made/tested in our ISO 17025/17034 laboratory.