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By the end of this section, you will be able to:
  • Describe the preparation, properties, and uses of halogens
  • Describe the properties, preparation, and uses of halogen compounds

The elements in group 17 are the halogens. These are the elements fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine. These elements are too reactive to occur freely in nature, but their compounds are widely distributed. Chlorides are the most abundant; although fluorides, bromides, and iodides are less common, they are reasonably available. In this section, we will examine the occurrence, preparation, and properties of halogens. Next, we will examine halogen compounds with the representative metals followed by an examination of the interhalogens. This section will conclude with some applications of halogens.

Occurrence and preparation

All of the halogens occur in seawater as halide ions. The concentration of the chloride ion is 0.54 M ; that of the other halides is less than 10 –4 M . Fluoride also occurs in minerals such as CaF 2 , Ca(PO 4 ) 3 F, and Na 3 AlF 6 . Chloride also occurs in the Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea, and in extensive salt beds that contain NaCl, KCl, or MgCl 2 . Part of the chlorine in your body is present as hydrochloric acid, which is a component of stomach acid. Bromine compounds occur in the Dead Sea and underground brines. Iodine compounds are found in small quantities in Chile saltpeter, underground brines, and sea kelp. Iodine is essential to the function of the thyroid gland.

The best sources of halogens (except iodine) are halide salts. It is possible to oxidize the halide ions to free diatomic halogen molecules by various methods, depending on the ease of oxidation of the halide ion. Fluoride is the most difficult to oxidize, whereas iodide is the easiest.

The major method for preparing fluorine is electrolytic oxidation. The most common electrolysis procedure is to use a molten mixture of potassium hydrogen fluoride, KHF 2 , and anhydrous hydrogen fluoride. Electrolysis causes HF to decompose, forming fluorine gas at the anode and hydrogen at the cathode. It is necessary to keep the two gases separated to prevent their explosive recombination to reform hydrogen fluoride.

Most commercial chlorine comes from the electrolysis of the chloride ion in aqueous solutions of sodium chloride; this is the chlor-alkali process discussed previously. Chlorine is also a product of the electrolytic production of metals such as sodium, calcium, and magnesium from their fused chlorides. It is also possible to prepare chlorine by the chemical oxidation of the chloride ion in acid solution with strong oxidizing agents such as manganese dioxide (MnO 2 ) or sodium dichromate (Na 2 Cr 2 O 7 ). The reaction with manganese dioxide is:

MnO 2 ( s ) + 2 Cl ( a q ) + 4 H 3 O + ( a q ) Mn 2+ ( a q ) + Cl 2 ( g ) + 6 H 2 O ( l )

The commercial preparation of bromine involves the oxidation of bromide ion by chlorine:

2 Br ( a q ) + Cl 2 ( g ) Br 2 ( l ) + 2 Cl ( a q )

Chlorine is a stronger oxidizing agent than bromine. This method is important for the production of essentially all domestic bromine.

Questions & Answers

A golfer on a fairway is 70 m away from the green, which sits below the level of the fairway by 20 m. If the golfer hits the ball at an angle of 40° with an initial speed of 20 m/s, how close to the green does she come?
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A mouse of mass 200 g falls 100 m down a vertical mine shaft and lands at the bottom with a speed of 8.0 m/s. During its fall, how much work is done on the mouse by air resistance
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2. A sled plus passenger with total mass 50 kg is pulled 20 m across the snow (0.20) at constant velocity by a force directed 25° above the horizontal. Calculate (a) the work of the applied force, (b) the work of friction, and (c) the total work.
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you have been hired as an espert witness in a court case involving an automobile accident. the accident involved car A of mass 1500kg which crashed into stationary car B of mass 1100kg. the driver of car A applied his brakes 15 m before he skidded and crashed into car B. after the collision, car A s
Samuel Reply
can someone explain to me, an ignorant high school student, why the trend of the graph doesn't follow the fact that the higher frequency a sound wave is, the more power it is, hence, making me think the phons output would follow this general trend?
Joseph Reply
Nevermind i just realied that the graph is the phons output for a person with normal hearing and not just the phons output of the sound waves power, I should read the entire thing next time
Joseph
Follow up question, does anyone know where I can find a graph that accuretly depicts the actual relative "power" output of sound over its frequency instead of just humans hearing
Joseph
"Generation of electrical energy from sound energy | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore" ***ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7150687?reload=true
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A string is 3.00 m long with a mass of 5.00 g. The string is held taut with a tension of 500.00 N applied to the string. A pulse is sent down the string. How long does it take the pulse to travel the 3.00 m of the string?
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Source:  OpenStax, Chemistry. OpenStax CNX. May 20, 2015 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11760/1.9
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