Question

What happens when silver chloride is exposed to sunlight? Write a chemical equation for this reaction.

Answer 1

Decomposition reaction

• A reaction where one chemical substance breaks down into two or more simpler substances is called a decomposition reaction.
• It can be categorized as a thermal, electrolytic, or photolytic decomposition reaction.

Example

• Silver chloride in presence of sunlight breaks down into silver and chlorine gas, and this reaction is used in white and black photography.
• The chemical reaction is as follows:

$2\mathrm{AgCl}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)\stackrel{\mathrm{sunlight}}{\to }2\mathrm{Ag}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+{\mathrm{Cl}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)$