Chlorine is the most abundant member of the halogen family of periodic table elements. Chlorine is an important chemical in our day-to-day life. Chlorine is a clear amber-colored liquid about 1.5 times heavier than water.

1. Chlorine role in day to day life
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2. Chlorine is the most abundant member of the halogen family
of periodic table elements. Chlorine is an important chemical
in our day-to-day life. Chlorine is a clear amber-colored liquid
about 1.5 times heavier than water. Gaseous chlorine is
greenish-yellow, about 2.5 times as heavier than air, which
will cause it to initially remain near the ground in areas with
little air movement. Chlorine has a pungent odor. Chlorine is
a powerful oxidizing agent and it must be handled carefully.
Chlorine is a yellow-green gas at room temperature.
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3. Chlorine is a major building block for the chemical and
pharmaceutical industry. Chlorine is also known as disinfectant in
drinking water and in swimming pools, chlorine contributes to
advances in areas as diverse as disinfecting, medicine, public
safety and enhancing our everyday life.
Chlorine is not flammable, but may react explosively or form
explosive compounds with many common substances (including
acetylene, ether, turpentine, ammonia, natural gas, hydrogen, and
finely divided metals).
Chlorine is slightly water soluble, and reacts with moisture to form
hypochlorous acid (HClO) and hydrochloric acid (HCl).
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4. Chlorine is commonly pressurized and cooled for storage
and shipment as an amber-colored liquid.
Chlorine gas is a harmful poison, which was the first gas
used in chemical warfare in World War I. It causes
suffocation, constriction of the chest, tightness in the throat,
and edema of the lungs. As little as 2.5 mg per litre in the
atmosphere causes death in minutes, but less than 0.0001
percent by volume may be tolerated for several hours.
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Surprising sources of chlorine
• A Chinese folk medicine plant contains five natural organo chlorine
compounds.
• An Ecuadorian tree frog produces a chlorinated alkaloid, with pain-killing
properties several hundred times more powerful than morphine.
• A natural organ chlorine antibiotic i.e., vancomycin, is a key defense against
hospital Staphylococcus infections.
• Some natural organ chlorinated products exhibit potent antibacterial and
anticancer properties
• NASA’s Curiosity Rover, currently exploring the surface of Mars, has
detected the presence of chlorine on the Red Planet. A Mars expert at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, US, stated that "the presence of
perchlorates implies a source of chlorine, which was most likely derived
from briny water or volcanic activity in the past".

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• NASA also detected chlorinated methane compounds
when soil samples were analyzed in Curiosity's on-
board laboratory.
• Chlorine constitutes about 0.013 percent of the Earth's
crust.
• Free chlorine has been reported as a very minor
constituent of volcanic gases, of which hydrogen
chloride (q.v.) is a fairly common component.
• Chlorine, as the chloride ion Cl-, is the main negative
ion in ocean water (1.9 percent by weight) and in
inland seas such as the Caspian Sea, the Dead Sea,
and the Great Salt Lake of Utah

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• It is found in evaporite minerals, for example,
combined with sodium, as rock salt (halite)
and in the minerals chlorapatite and sodalite.
• Natural chlorine is a mixture of two stable
isotopes: chlorine-35 (75.53 percent) and
chlorine-37 (24.47 percent).
• The Chloride ion is present in the body fluids
of higher animals and as hydrochloric acid in
the digestive secretions of the stomach.

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Properties
• Chlorine molecules are composed of two atoms (Cl2). Chlorine combines
directly with almost all the elements to give chlorides
• Besides the -1 oxidation state of the chlorides, chlorine also exhibits +1, +3,
+5, +7 oxidation states, respectively, in the following ions: hypochlorite, ClO-
; chlorite, ClO-2 ; chlorate, ClO-3 and perchlorate, ClO-4 .
• Chlorine also exists in the forms of four oxides, such as chlorine
monoxide (Cl2O), chlorine dioxide (ClO2), dichlorine hexoxide (Cl2O6), and
dichlorine heptoxide (Cl2O7). All the four oxides are highly reactive and
unstable, have been indirectly synthesized.
• Chlorine can displace the heavier halogens, bromine and iodine, from their
ionic compounds and undergoes addition or substitution reactions with
organic compounds. Chlorine enters directly or as an intermediate into the
synthesis of many organic chemicals that are used as solvents, dyes,
plastics, and synthetic rubber.

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• Many chemicals, plastics and medicines depend on chlorine
during the manufacturing process, although the chemical is
not contained in the end product.
• Two third of all chlorine is used in the production of plastics,
such as PVC, Poly-Urethanes, Epoxy-resins, Teflon,
Neoprene etc., for use in construction, automotive, electronic
and electrical industries.
• 85 per cent of medicines, including many lifesaving drugs, are
made using chlorine chemistry.
• 25 per cent of medical devices contain chlorine, including
blood bags, sterile tubing, heart catheters, prosthetics and X-
ray films.
• More than 90 per cent of Western Europe's drinking water is
made safe with the help of chlorine. Worldwide waterborne
diseases kill 15 million people each year.

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Chlorine production methods
• Most chlorine is industrially produced by the
electrolysis of brine. Chlorine is also obtained as a by-
product in the manufacture of sodium metal by the
electrolysis of molten sodium chloride.
• One of the laboratory methods to prepare chlorine is
reaction between sulfuric acid and sodium
hypochlorite or hydrochloric acid with sodium
hypochlorite. Sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid reacts
with sodium hypochlorite solution to release chlorine
gas but reacts with sodium chlorate to produce
chlorine gas and chlorine dioxide gas.

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Industrial production of chlorine is
through by following process:
• The membrane cell process
• The mercury cell process
• The diaphragm cell process

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Chlorine applications
• Chlorine and its compounds are used extensively for bleaching in the paper
and textile industries, for disinfecting municipal water supplies, for
household bleaches and germicides, and for the production of many organic
and inorganic chemicals, in the separation of such metals as copper, lead,
zinc, nickel, and gold from their ores.
• Chlorinated solvents are used as an extraction medium in pharmaceutical
processes, in printing, mining and plastics processing, in the manufacture of
adhesives and in paint & varnish remover.
• Chlorine compounds have been used in pharmaceutical formulations for
many years and play a part in the eradication of infection and disease. It is
not only used in antiseptics, but in drugs such as chloramphenicol.

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