A Question..

[DJ Hobo]

I read about testing for chlorine in water, and I stumbled upon a sentence that goes something like this:

"Upon introduction to water, chlorine gas will form hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ion"

So I'm wondering.. What's the equation that describes this? All I know for sure is that hypochlorous acid is HOCl and hypochlorite ion is OCl-.

Any help here is appreciated :)

[Russ]

I would assume that one H proton would get one Cl- anion and one HO- hydroxy group would get the other Cl- ion.

Thus;

H2O + Cl2 --> HCl + HOCl


I can't see an equation evolving the two compounds you named, unless there's another source of protons :(

[DJ Hobo]

alrighty then, thanks for the help.