Chlorine

Position of chlorine in the periodic table.

Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine is a yellow-green gas at room temperature. It is an extremely reactive element and a strong oxidising agent. Elemental chlorine at high concentration is extremely dangerous, and poisonous to most living organisms.

Uses

Elemental chlorine is commercially produced from brine by electrolysis, predominantly in the chlor-alkali process. The high oxidising potential of elemental chlorine led to the development of commercial bleaches and disinfectants, and a reagent for many processes in the chemical industry. Chlorine is used in the manufacture of a wide range of consumer products, about two-thirds of them organic chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), many intermediates for the production of plastics, and other end products which do not contain the element. As a common disinfectant, elemental chlorine and chlorine-generating compounds are used more directly in swimming pools to keep them sanitary. As a chemical warfare agent, chlorine was first used in World War I as a poison gas weapon.

See also

• Carbon
• Helium
• Hydrogen
• Nitrogen
• Oxygen
• Phosphorus
• Silicon
• Sulfur
• Chemical elements

References

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Chlorine, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).