Question

Name the poisonous gas that can be prepared from chlorine gas.

Answer 1

Phosgene:

• Phosgene is formed by exposing chloroform to air.
• Chloroform(${\mathrm{CHCl}}_3$) is extremely unstable and oxidizes almost immediately upon coming to contact with air and forms phosgene.
• Phosgene (${\mathrm{COCl}}_2$) is an extremely poisonous gas that was used in the concentration camps along with mustard gas in world war 2.
• $\underset{\mathrm{Chloroform}}{{\mathrm{CHCl}}_3}\left(l\right)+\underset{\mathrm{Oxygen}}{\frac{1}{2}{\mathrm{O}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}\underset{\mathrm{Sunlight}}{\overset{\mathrm{Air}}{\to }}\underset{\mathrm{Phosgene}}{{\mathrm{COCl}}_2\left(g\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Hydrochloric}\mathrm{acid}}{\mathrm{HCl}}\left(g\right)$

Mustard gas:

• Mustard gas can also be synthesized by chlorine gas.
• The chemical formula of mustard gas is: $\mathrm{Cl}-{\mathrm{CH}}_2-{\mathrm{CH}}_2-\mathrm{S}-{\mathrm{CH}}_2-{\mathrm{CH}}_2-\mathrm{Cl}$