• Question: what is clorine?

    Asked by Chazerlicious to Andrew, Jade, Jessica, Kevin, Lynn on 22 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Jess Wade

      Jess Wade answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Chlorine is an element called a halogen from the periodic table. It has 17 little electrons inside it! Chlorine forms something called a ‘diatomic molecule’, so we never see just one chlorine, it comes in pairs (Cl2). IF we had chlorine gas on its own it would be super dangerous! The name ‘chlorine’ comes from the greek for ‘chloros’, which means green-yellow. That’s what colour the gas is!
      Chorine is a poison to humans and would smell really bad. We use tiny bits of chlorine in swimming pools to keep the pools safe. It kills all bacteria and germs, so when we swim int he water we don’t get sick. It’s sea water too, and makes up around 2 %. We also see it a lot in the kitchen! The salt we use for cooking is called Sodium Chloride, and is made from sodium and chlorine.

    • Photo: Kevin Honeychurch

      Kevin Honeychurch answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      Chlorine is a chemical element with symbol Cl. It is a halogen, group (17) and is the second lightest halogen following fluorine.
      The element is a yellow-green gas, where it forms diatomic molecules and it is a strong oxidizing agent.

      Chlorine gas (bertholite) was first used as a weapon in World War I. It reacts with water in the mucosa of the lungs/nose to form hydrochloric acid, an irritant that can be lethal. It has also been reported used in the Iraq war, Syrian civil war and others.

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