Question

What happens when methane reacts with excess chlorine in the presence of sunlight. Give a balanced chemical equation and write the name of the reactants and products.

Answer 1

Halogenation is a type of substitution reaction in which a substituted product is formed.

A halogenation reaction is a chemical reaction in which halogen atoms are substituted by the replacement of Hydrogen $\left(\mathrm{H}\right)$ atoms.

The chlorination of Methane $\left({\mathrm{CH}}_4\right)$ takes place in the presence of sunlight.

When methane reacts with excess Chlorine $\left({\mathrm{Cl}}_2\right)$ in the presence of sunlight forms the carbon tetrachloride as the product.

The balanced chemical equation of the reaction is written as:

$$\begin{gathered} {\mathrm{CH}}_4+{\mathrm{Cl}}_2\underset{-\mathrm{HCl}}{\overset{h\nu }{\to }}{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{Cl}+{\mathrm{Cl}}_2\underset{-\mathrm{HCl}}{\overset{h\nu }{\to }}{\mathrm{CH}}_2{\mathrm{Cl}}_2+{\mathrm{Cl}}_2\underset{-\mathrm{HCl}}{\overset{h\nu }{\to }}{\mathrm{CHCl}}_3+{\mathrm{Cl}}_2\underset{-\mathrm{HCl}}{\overset{h\nu }{\to }}{\mathrm{CCl}}_4 \\ \left(\mathrm{Methane}\right)\left(\mathrm{Chloromethane}\right)\left(\mathrm{Dichloromethane}\right)\left(\mathrm{Trichloromethane}\right)\left(\mathrm{Tetrachloromethane}\right) \end{gathered}$$

The reactant present in the chemical equation is Methane and Chlorine and the product formed in the chemical equation is Carbon tetrachloride $\left({\mathrm{CCl}}_4\right)$.