Question

What happens when Nitric acid reacts with Ammonia?

Answer 1

Hint: Nitric acid $(HN{O}_3)$ , colorless, fuming and highly corrosive liquid. It is toxic and can cause severe burns. Ammonia is a colorless gas with a distinct characteristic of a pungent smell. It is a stable hybrid.

Complete answer:
When nitric acid reacts with ammonia it forms ammonium nitrate $(N{H}_{4}N{O}_3)$ . It is a white crystalline solid consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. It is highly soluble in water although it does not form hydrates.
The industrial production of ammonium nitrate entails the acid-base reaction of ammonia with nitric acid.
 $HN{O}_3+N{H}_3\to N{H}_{4}N{O}_3$
Ammonia is used in its anhydrous form and the nitric acid is concentrated. The reaction is violet owing to its highly exothermic reaction. After the solution is formed, typically about $83\mathrm{\%}$ concentration, the excess water is evaporated off to leave an ammonium nitrate.
The ammonia required for this process is obtained by the Haber process from nitrogen and hydrogen. Ammonia produced by the Haber process can be oxidized to nitric acid by the Ostwald process, another production method is a variant of the nitrophosphate process: $Ca(N{O}_3{)}_2+2N{H}_3+C{O}_2+H_{2}O\to 2N{H}_{4}N{O}_3+CaC{O}_3$
The products, calcium carbonate and ammonium nitrate, may be separately purified or sold combined as calcium ammonium nitrate.
As ammonium nitrate is a salt, both the cation, $N{H_4}^{+}$ , and the anion $N{O_3}^{-}$ , may take part in the chemical reaction. Solid ammonium nitrate decomposes on heating. At temperatures below around ${300}^{\circ }$ C, the decomposition mainly produces nitrous oxide and water.
 $N{H}_{4}N{O}_3\to N_{2}O+2H_{2}O$ At higher temperature, the following predominates $2N{H}_{4}N{O}_3\to 2N_2+O_2+4H_{2}O$ . Both decomposition reactions are exothermic and their products are gas.
Uses of Ammonium nitrate:
Fertilizers. Ammonium nitrate is an important fertilizer, it is less concentrated than urea. Ammonium nitrate's advantage over urea is that it is more stable and does not rapidly lose nitrogen to the atmosphere.
Explosive. Ammonium nitrate is an ingredient in certain explosives. Examples of explosives containing ammonium nitrate include- Astrolite, Amatol, Ammonal etc.

Note:
Ammonium nitrate explodes violently. The explosive force occurs when solid ammonium nitrate decomposes very rapidly into two gases, nitrous oxide and water vapor. Ammonium nitrate begins decomposition after melting, releasing $N{O}_x,HN{O}_3,N{H}_3$ and $H_{2}O$ , it should not be heated in a confined space. The resulting heat and pressure from decomposition increases the sensitivity to detonation and increases the speed of decomposition.