What is "ammonium phosphate"

Ammonium phosphate is the salt of ammonium and phosphate. It is a highly unstable compound with the formula (NH)PO. Because of its instability, it is elusive and of no commercial value (except for scientific research). In addition to (NH)PO, a related double salt (NH)PO.(NH)HPO is also recognized. It too is unstable. The instability of these salts results in their facile decomposition with evolution of ammonia:

In contrast to the fragile nature of the triammonium salts, diammonium phosphate (H(NH)PO) is a valuable material, mainly used as a fertilizer.

Ammonium phosphate refers to three different chemical compounds, all of which are formed by the reaction of ammonia with phosphoric acid and have the general formula [NH][HPO], where 1 ≤ x ≤ 3:

• Ammonium dihydrogenphosphate, [NH][HPO]
• Diammonium phosphate, [NH][HPO]
• Ammonium phosphate, [NH][PO]

Category:Ammonium compounds Category:Phosphates