By: Jessica

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE?

Chlorine is a pale yellow-green gas. It’s a colored liquid, in order to see the yellow color, you have to have a light background.

USES

Chlorine is used in many everyday products. It is used for disinfecting drinking water. In nature, chlorine is only found in the combined state. Chlorine is used to make computer hardware and automotive parts. Chlorine was first used in drinking water in the 19th century to control the spread of water-born diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever. Chlorine is used to disinfect swimming pool water. Adding small amounts of chlorine to drinking water supplies has saved millions of people’s lives. Chlorine is also used for paper products, food, paints, plastic and many other things.

HISTORY

Elemental chlorine was first prepared and studied in 1774 by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, and , so he is credited for its discovery. He named this new element as chlorine, from the Greek word χλωρος (chlōros), meaning green-yellow. Since chlorine combines directly with nearly every element, chlorine is never found free in nature.

Carl Wilhelm Scheele

FactsChlorinated water kills bacteria because it breaks down into chlorine and oxygen. Both the chlorine and the oxygen need more electrons and join easily with other atoms. Chlorine also mixes easily with water, forming an acid molecule made of hydrogen, oxygen, and chlorine atoms. This is the main ingredient of bleach, and we use it to kill bacteria in water, to make it safe to swim in and to drink.

Molecule

GLOSSARY

χλωρος greenish -yellow

Disinfect - Clean with a disinfectant so as to destroy bacteria.

Chemist - An expert in chemistry; a person engaged in chemical research or experiments

fUn fAcTsChlorine's Name in Other Languages

Latin: Chlorum

Czech: Chlor

Croatian: Klor

French: Chlore

German: Chlor - r

Italian: Cloro

Norwegian: Klor

Portuguese: Clóro

Russian: Хлор

Spanish: Cloro

Swedish: Klor

WEBSITEShttp://www.radiochemistry.org/period

ictable/elements/17.html

http://www.chemicool.com/elements/chlorine.html

http://www.chemicalelements.com/elements/cl.html

http://chemistry.about.com/od/elementfacts/a/chlorine.htm