Question

What does chloroform give when exposed to air and sunlight?

Answer 1

Chloroform:

• It is a colorless liquid that evaporates easily into gas.
• It is an inorganic compound having molecular formula as ${\mathrm{CHCl}}_3$.

Reaction of Chloroform with air and sunlight:

• When Chloroform $\left({\mathrm{CHCl}}_3\right)$ reacts with air and sunlight, it produces a toxic gas known as Phosgene gas $\left({\mathrm{COCl}}_2\right)$ along with Hydrochloric acid $\left(\mathrm{HCl}\right)$.
• The chemical reaction can be depicted as:

$$\begin{gathered} 2{\mathrm{CHCl}}_3\left(\mathrm{l}\right)+{\mathrm{O}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)\stackrel{\mathrm{sunlight}}{\to }2{\mathrm{COCl}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)+2\mathrm{HCl}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right) \\ \left(\mathrm{Chloroform}\right)\left(\mathrm{Oxygen}\right)\left(\mathrm{Phosgene}\right)(\mathrm{Hydrochloric}\mathrm{acid}) \end{gathered}$$