Cl2 and NaOH reaction question

doing a past paper, a question asked what would happen when Cl2 and NaOH reacted, one of the products being NaClO. the answer was:

2NaOH + Cl2 ---> NaClO + NaCl + H2O
why is this the answer? I got it wrong as i put the products as NaClO and HCL, with only one mol of NaOH

please help!!!

Reply 1

Nucleotide

10

Original post by klarriel

doing a past paper, a question asked what would happen when Cl2 and NaOH reacted, one of the products being NaClO. the answer was:

2NaOH + Cl2 ---> NaClO + NaCl + H2O
why is this the answer? I got it wrong as i put the products as NaClO and HCL, with only one mol of NaOH

please help!!!

It's a disproportionation reaction so the products will be NaCLO NaCL and H2O. There will always be three products for this reaction not two like you put

Reply 2

Pigster

20

Imagine if you added NaOH to CL2 and one of the products was HCl... what would happen to the HCl when it had NaOH added to it? What would form?

You'd have:

Cl2 + NaOH -> NaClO + HCl

HCl + NaOH -> NaCl + H2O

Adding the two together (and cancelling)...

Shazzam.

Reply 3

NinjaChip

3

Original post by klarriel

doing a past paper, a question asked what would happen when Cl2 and NaOH reacted, one of the products being NaClO. the answer was:

2NaOH + Cl2 ---> NaClO + NaCl + H2O
why is this the answer? I got it wrong as i put the products as NaClO and HCL, with only one mol of NaOH

please help!!!

Think of it like this:
You're told that when the Cl2 and NaOH react, one of the products is NaClO. That means that the remaining products are a H+ ion and a Cl- ion. These two ions will bond, forming hydrogen chloride (HCl) also known as hydrochloric acid. But when one Cl2 and NaOH react, to form a HCl, there's still more of the NaOH present in the solution, so the HCl will react with the NaOH (neutralisation reaction) to form NaCl and H2O, therefore ending up with NaClO, NaCl, and H2O!

In conclusion, this reaction has two steps:

2NaOH + Cl2 ---> NaClO + HCl
NaOH + HCl ---> NaCl + H2O

2NaOH + Cl2 ---> NaClO + HCl + H2O

Hopefully this makes sense! Feel free to ask if you still don't understand anything!

nkhh

hey what if the excess naoh react with the naclo? isnt it be other equation?

Cl2 and NaOH reaction question

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