Chlorine gas: an evolving hazardous material threat and unconventional weapon

Group 17 elements, known as halogens, are nonmetals. At room temperature, fluorine and chlorine are gases, bromine is a liquid, and iodine a solid. Astatine is a highly unstable radioactive element, so currently, most of its properties are unknown due to its short half-life. Tennessine is a synthetic element also predicted to be in this group.

Typically, when alkenes react with halogens at low temperatures, an addition reaction occurs. However, upon increasing the temperature or under reaction conditions that form radicals, providing a low but steady concentration of halogen radicals, allylic substitution reaction is favored. This is because allylic hydrogens are very reactive as the formed intermediate is resonance stabilized. For example, when propene is treated with chlorine in the gas phase at 400 °C, it undergoes allylic...

In the presence of heat or light, alkanes react with molecular halogens to form alkyl halides by a substitution reaction called radical halogenation. This reaction has three steps: initiation, propagation, and termination, as seen in the radical chlorination of methane to produce methyl chloride.
In the initiation step of the reaction, the chlorine molecule undergoes homolytic cleavage in the presence of light or heat, forming two highly reactive chlorine radicals. Propagation occurs in two...

Chemicals play important roles in controlling microbial growth by targeting microbial structures and functions as sanitizers, antiseptics, disinfectants, and sterilants.Alcohols are commonly used sanitizers, effectively disrupting lipid membranes, which compromises cell integrity. They are also used as antiseptics and disinfectants due to their rapid action and versatility.Phenols and their derivatives phenolics , known for denaturing proteins and disrupting cell membranes, are particularly...

Humans continually engage with an environment rich in potentially harmful chemicals. These are introduced to our bodies through inhalation, ingestion, or skin contact. These chemicals exist in various forms, such as air and environmental pollutants, agricultural chemicals, organic solvents, and heavy metals.
Air pollutants, primarily gases, pose significant threats to respiratory health, leading to conditions like hypoxia, lung cancer, and in extreme cases, death.
Environmental pollutants like...

Halogenation is the addition of chlorine or bromine across the double bond in an alkene to yield a vicinal dihalide. The reaction occurs in the presence of inert and non-nucleophilic solvents, such as methylene chloride, chloroform, or carbon tetrachloride.
Consider the bromination of cyclopentene. Molecular bromine is polarized in the proximity of the π electrons of cyclopentene. An electrophilic bromine atom adds across the double bond, forming a cyclic bromonium ion intermediate.