Hydrolysis; will the pH increase decrease or remain unchanged?

Question

Ammonium nitrate, NH4NO3, is a nitrogen fertilizer.  What effect will the application of an aqueous solution of this fertilizer have on the pH of the soil?  Will it tend to raise the pH, lower it, or leave it unchanged?

if you also know how to predict if something will hydrolyze that will help me because I don't understand it and I need someone to put it into basic terms with me
BTW I am in Chem 12 but younger students may have covered this subject already...please ask your children if they know anything about hydrolysis.

Erebos · Accepted Answer

ammonium containing compounds are usually acids and will thus decrease pH. 

things tend to hydrolyze if they contain an ester, glycosidic or amide bond (biological stuff, anyways). Wikipedia can explain exactly what these bonds look like, rather me trying to explain it without any pictures. ester bonds (including phosphoesters) are found in DNA, RNA, ATP, lipids. Glycosidic bonds are found in just about all large chain sugars (starch, glycogen etc). and amide bonds are found in all protein. essentially, they're all easier to hydrolyze, because the water molecule can easily attack the central carbon (or phospherus in the case of phosphoesters), since they bear a partial positive charge due to the oxygens/nitrogens that are bonded to it.

Hydrolysis; will the pH increase decrease or remain unchanged?

1 Answer