Ammonolysis

[5] This mechanism[7] is similar to the hydrolysis of esters, the ammonia attacks the electrophilic carbonyl carbon forming a tetrahedral intermediate.

The alkoxide deprotonates the ammonia forming an alcohol and amide as products.

[8] On heating a haloalkane and concentrated ammonia in a sealed tube with ethanol, a series of amines are formed along with their salts.

[13] The reaction between a ketone and ammonia results in an imine and byproduct water.

The resulting imine will react and decompose back into the ketone and the ammonia when in the presence of water.

This is due to the fact that this reaction is reversible:[14] Ammonolysis can be used to synthesize nitrides (and oxynitrides) by reacting various metal precursors with ammonia, some options include chemical vapor deposition,[3] treating metals or metal oxides with ammonia gas,[15] or liquid supercritical ammonia (also known as "ammonothermal" synthesis, analogous to hydrothermal synthesis).

[16] The products of these reactions may be complex, with mixtures of oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen that can be difficult to characterize.