Ammonium hydrosulfide is the

chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one ele ...

with the formula .

Composition

It is the

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quanti ...

derived from the

ammonium The ammonium cation is a positively-charged polyatomic ion with the chemical formula or . It is formed by the protonation of ammonia (). Ammonium is also a general name for positively charged or protonated substituted amines and quaternar ...

cation An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

and the

hydrosulfide Bisulfide (or bisulphide in British English) is an inorganic anion with the chemical formula HS− (also written as SH−). It contributes no color to bisulfide salts, and its salts may have a distinctive putrid smell. It is a strong base. Bisul ...

anion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

. The salt exists as colourless, water-soluble,

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

ceous crystals. On Earth the compound is encountered mainly as a solution, not as the solid, but ice is believed to be a substantial component of the cloud decks of the gas-giant planets

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandt ...

and

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; ...

, with sulfur produced by its photolysis responsible for the color of some of those planets' clouds. It can be generated by mixing

hydrogen sulfide Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The und ...

and

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogeno ...

Preparation

Solutions of ammonium hydrosulfide can be prepared by passing

gas through concentrated

solution. According to a detailed 1895 report, hydrogen sulfide reacts with concentrated aqueous ammonia solution at room temperature to give . When this species is cooled to 0 °C and treated with additional hydrogen sulfide, one obtains . An ice-cold solution of this substance kept at 0 °C and having hydrogen sulfide continually passed through it gives the hydrosulfide. The common "

stink bomb A stink bomb, sometimes called a stinkpot, is a device designed to create an unpleasant smell. They range in effectiveness from being used as simple pranks to military grade malodorants or riot control chemical agents. History A stink bomb t ...

" consists of an aqueous solution of ammonium sulfide. The mixture easily converts to

and

gases. This conversion illustrates the ease of the following equilibrium: : Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide each have a powerful and unpleasant smell.

"Ammonium sulfide"

Aqueous solutions of ammonium sulfide (CAS registry number ), also known as diammonium sulfide are commercially available, although the composition of these solutions is uncertain as they could consist of a mixture of ammonia and . Ammonium sulfide solutions are used occasionally in photographic developing, to apply

patina Patina ( or ) is a thin layer that variously forms on the surface of copper, brass, bronze and similar metals and metal alloys ( tarnish produced by oxidation or other chemical processes) or certain stones and wooden furniture (sheen produce ...

to bronze, and in

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not t ...

manufacturing. It can be used as a selective reducing agent (cf. 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene); where there are two nitro groups, only one of them is selectively reduced. The 1990-1991 ''

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics The ''CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics'' is a comprehensive one-volume reference resource for science research. First published in 1914, it is currently () in its 103rd edition, published in 2022. It is sometimes nicknamed the "Rubber Bible ...

'' gives information for anhydrous ammonium monosulfide () and ammonium pentasulfide () as separate from anhydrous ammonium hydrosulfide (), describing the former two both as yellow crystalline substances that are soluble in cold water and alcohol, and which both decompose in hot water or at high temperature in general (115°C for the pentasulfide), but the latter as a white crystalline solid (which also decomposes in hot water). Thus, it seems that solid ammonium sulfide can be distinct from solid ammonium hydrosulfide, even if this is not true in aqueous solution.

References

{{sulfur compounds Ammonium compounds Hydrosulfides