Chlorine

by Nina Carroll

Chlorine is a naturally-occurring chemical element. Chlorine can be everywhere, from our drinking water to the briny oceans. Chlorine is not only abundant in our oceans; it is the sixth most abundant element in Earth’s crust. Researching chlorine has helped millions of people around the globe. Clean drinking water is essential and made possible with chlorine disinfectants. Chlorine chemistry is crucial to manufacturing thousands of products that we use today, it destroys life-threatening germs, produces life-saving drugs and medical equipment, shields police and fire fighters in the line of duty, ensures a plentiful food supply and more.
In 1774 a Swedish pharmacist Carl Wilhem Scheele released a few drops of hydrochloric acid onto a piece of manganese dioxide. Within seconds, a greenish-yellow gas arose. He discovered chlorine! Chlorine is one of the most adequate ways to disinfect a wide range of dangerous germs in homes, hospitals, swimming pools, hotels, restaurants, and other public places. Chlorine's powerful disinfectant qualities come from its ability to bond with and destroy the outer surfaces of bacteria and viruses.
Chlorine is usually found in nature with other elements like sodium and potassium because it is highly reactive. When chlorine is isolated as a free element, it is a greenish yellow gas, which is 2.5 times heavier than air. It turns to a liquid state at -34°C (-29°F), and it becomes a yellowish crystalline solid at -103°C (-153°F). The density of chlorine is 20oC. The abundance on earth’s crust is 145 parts per million by weight. Chlorine has 16 isotopes whose half-lives are known, with mass numbers 31 to 46. The Electron configuration for chlorine is Ne 3s2 3p5.

Chlorine is very useful but has harmful effects; it is a toxic gas that irritates the skin, the eyes and the respiratory system. If you breathe in too much of it you could get sick and possibly die. Scientists use chlorine to make paper white. It bleaches the paper of all color. The chlorine in bleach makes your white clothes really white. It also takes the color out of your darker clothes. Chorine is also used to purify the water you in your house. Chlorine is in the table salt you use to put on your food. Scientists discovered that salt is made of one chlorine atom combined with one sodium atom.

 

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