![]() The dark side of Cl 2 production is that too much of it is released directly into the atmosphere. Of course, the by-product of magnesium production is elemental chlorine, which can be responsibly used for all of the above-mentioned health and manufacturing applications. The MgCl 2 is electrolyzed to produce Mg 0, a lightweight metal used in the auto industry. Some of this salt ends up on your french fries (NaCl), and some you throw on your sidewalk in the winter (CaCl 2). Through elaborate extraction procedures, the various chloride salts can be separated. The vast deposits of salt created during millions of years of continental upheaval and slow evaporation of the ancient Lake Bonneville are mined on the shores of the present-day Great Salt Lake. ![]() Elemental chlorine does not exist naturally on our planet but is manufactured by electrolysis of seawater. Where does all this chlorine come from? I can literally see tons of it out my window. All are synthesized by chlorination of hydrocarbon precursors. Chlorocarbon compounds range from the good (chloroquine, an antimalarial) to the bad (DDT and chlorofluorocarbons) to the downright ugly (polychlorinated biphenyls). Even less obvious to most is the role of chlorine in the wood and paper industry (as a bleach) and in the processing of metals and the production of other materials such as titanium dioxide. We tend to overlook the fact that the C in PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipes is chloride, and without chlorine we wouldn't have Saran wrap, nylon, microprocessors, soccer balls, or plastic toys. Only a fraction of that is in the form most consumers would easily recognize: household bleach and swimming pool chemicals. The Chlorine Chemistry Council argues that the element also has an enormous economic impact, contributing 2 million jobs and around $50 billion to the annual U.S. Chlorine continues to be the disinfectant of choice in the food industry, in swimming pools, and in the drinking water supply in most developed countries. The mid-19th century saw one of the most dramatic improvements in human health: Bleach began to be used as a disinfectant in hospitals, and chlorination of the water supply in London during a cholera outbreak in 1850 saved many lives. SHORE LEAVE Morton Salt maintains a plant near the south end of Utah's Great Salt Lake. It is an excellent disinfectant for swimming pools and water supplies, and its compounds are used in plastics such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), stain removers, and bleach. Uses: Chlorine is essential to living systems and is also one of the top chemicals manufactured in the U.S. Breathing high concentration of the gas can be fatal chlorine was used as a poison gas during World War I. Today, most chlorine is produced through the electrolysis of aqueous sodium chloride.Īppearance: Yellowish-green, dense, sharp-smelling gas.īehavior: Liquid chlorine burns skin, and gaseous chlorine irritates mucous membranes. Occurrence: Found in nature dissolved in salts in seawater and in the deposits of salt mines. Identified as an element by Sir Humphry Davy in 1810. History: Discovered, yet misidentified as a compound, by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1774. ![]() Name: From the Greek khloros, greenish yellow. In the small town of Javelle, France, chlorine added to alkaline water created l'eau Javelle ("bleach" in English, NaOCl in chemspeak) that was used in the fabric industry in the late-18th century. Sir Humphry Davy recognized the gas as an element in 1810 and named it based on the Greek word for its color, khloros.Ĭhlorine was by this time already in use. Carl Wilhem Scheele, a Swedish pharmacist, first described the greenish yellow gas in 1774 after dropping hydrochloric acid onto manganese dioxide. Sadly, the ≡ oxidation state of chlorine is often glossed over as the necessary counterion to an exotic metal ion or complex cation, the necessary yin to complement the yang.Ĭonversely, molecular chlorine, Cl 2, has held a starring role in history, both for its benefits to human health and for its detrimental effects on the environment. Arguably, chloride plays a more important role in the antitumor drug cisplatin, Pt(NH 3) 2Cl 2, although its function there is to get lost (that is, hydrolyze) so that platinum has room to bind to DNA. Sodium grabs all the press from NaCl as the dietary culprit in hypertension, while silver's the key to AgCl's action in photography. C&EN: IT'S ELEMENTAL: THE PERIODIC TABLE - CHLORINEĬHLORINE CYNTHIA BURROWS, UNIVERSITY OF UTAHĪ s an anion, chlorine is rather ordinary. ![]()
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