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How does ammonium chloride make an acidic solution in water?

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sodium sulfate — acid–base reaction Sodium sulfate, also called Glauber's salt, is, like other salts, the product of an acid-base reaction.

Ammonium chloride ( $N H_{4} C l$ ) creates a slightly acidic solution in water through a process known as hydrolysis.12

Under the Brønsted–Lowry theory, this occurs because the ammonium ion ( $N H_{4}^{+}$ ) acts as a weak acid. When the salt dissolves in water, the ammonium ion donates a proton ( $H^{+}$ ) to a water molecule ( $H_{2} O$ ), resulting in the formation of the hydronium ion ( $H_{3} O^{+}$ ) and ammonia ( $N H_{3}$ ). The presence of these hydronium ions is what accounts for the acidity of the solution.23

The chloride ion ( $C l^{-}$ ) does not participate in this reaction, as it is the conjugate base of a strong acid and possesses negligible acid–base properties in this context. This hydrolysis reaction is essentially the reverse of the neutralization of aqueous ammonia by a strong acid.23