Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula NH3. Salts of ammonia have been known from very early times. As early as the thirteenth century, ammonia was known to the alchemists. In 1909, Fintz Haber and Carl Bosch developed a method of producing ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen called the Haber process or the Haber-Bosch process.
Ammonia has molecular formula NH3 and molecular mass of 17. It occurs in a free state in air and traces of water. In the combined state, it occurs in ammonium chloride, ammonium sulphate etc. A solution of ammonia is alkaline and commonly used in the kitchen as a cleansing agent because it can dissolve grease. Most of the ammonia manufactured is converted into fertilizers like ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulphate. These provide nitrogen to the soil.