Why is ammonia a water-like solvent? How does it react with sodium metal?

Answer 1

Why? Well because it can be.........

Ammonia is a water-like solvent. It is relatively high boiling, and it can be used in the laboratory with fairly simple equipment. I've seen it used with beakers, and dry-ice/ethanol condensers. The vapour pressure of the ammonia forms an effective protective blanket around the solution. It's pretty smelly tho......

The reaction with sodium is truly beautiful, and chemists conceive of a long-lived solvated electrons, before the solvent is reduced.

Why should ammonia be high boiling? What special property does it share with water?

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Answer 2

Owen Ambrose

Ammonia is water-like due to its ability to form hydrogen bonds. It reacts with sodium metal to produce sodium amide and hydrogen gas.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.