Question

Write the chemical formula of bleaching powder.

Answer 1

Hint: The chemical formula of bleaching powder contains three atoms, i.e., calcium, chlorine, and oxygen. The ratio of chlorine and oxygen atoms is double the number of atoms of the calcium atoms.

Complete step by step answer:
The other names of bleaching powder are hypochlorous acid calcium salt, calcium oxychloride, and chloride of lime. It is an inorganic compound or molecule. : The chemical formula of bleaching powder contains three atoms, i.e., calcium, chlorine, and oxygen. The ratio of chlorine and oxygen atoms is double the number of atoms of the calcium atoms. So, its formula is $Ca{{(ClO)}_{2}}$. Normally it is represented as:
$(Cl-{{O}^{-}})C{{a}^{2+}}{{(}^{-}}O-Cl)$
The molar or molecular mass of the bleaching powder is 142.98 g/mol.
It usually appears as a white powder or grey powder but in commercial samples, it appears yellow.
Its density is $2.35\,\text{g/c}{{\text{m}}^{3}}$ at ${{20}^{\circ }}C$.
Its solubility is not very high so, at 25 degree Celsius is 21%. This means that in 100 ml of water only 21 g of bleaching powder dissolves.
Its melting point is ${{100}^{\circ }}C$ which is equal to 373K.
Its boiling point is ${{175}^{\circ }}C$ which is equal to 448K.
It easily reacts with alcohol.
When the bleaching powder is exposed to moist air there will be slow decomposition will start and will strongly smell the chlorine.
The two main uses of bleaching powder are water treatment and used as a bleaching agent.
In the laboratory, it is used as an oxidizing agent and is mostly used in organic chemistry.

Note: The industrial production of bleaching powder involves two compounds, i.e., chlorine gas and lime. The reaction is given below:
$2C{{l}_{2}}+2Ca{{(OH)}_{2}}\to Ca{{(ClO)}_{2}}+CaC{{l}_{2}}+2{{H}_{2}}O$