charley1957 - 27-1-2023 at 20:07
I’ve been contemplating making some chloroform. I don’t really need it, I just wanted to explore the chemistry. I’ve watched many videos and
read about everything I can find about it in this forum, but nobody has said what happens to the bleach. Does using this small amount of acetone
“use up” the entire gallon of bleach? I guess my real question is, after making your small amount of chloroform could you not add more acetone
and make more? I’ve studied the reaction mechanisms but I’ve not studied enough chemistry to completely understand it all, which is really what
I’m trying to do. It just seems like a large amount of bleach to use to get such a small amount of product. I’d appreciate any insights into how
it all works. Thanks!
Texium - 27-1-2023 at 21:07
Can you write out the balanced equation for the reaction? That will give you a clue as to why you need so much bleach.
j_sum1 - 27-1-2023 at 21:44
Chloroform has a high percentage of chlorine atoms by weight. Bleach is a relatively dilute solution with a much lower percentage of chlorine.
You need a lot of bleach to make the chloroform.
As Tex said, writing the reaction and doing the stoichiometry will give you your answer.
This however is not a unique situation. Quite often with redox reactions, if there is a large transfer of electrons, a surprisingly large amount of
either oxidant or reductant is required. One time, when attempting to oxidise toluene, I remember being very surprised how much sodium persulfate was
needed. I needed to double check my calculations. Similarly, I am always a bit startled at reactions that require more than 100g of potassium
permanganate or large quantities of sodium.
charley1957 - 28-1-2023 at 06:06
Texium, I will do that. It hadn’t occurred to me to do that. j-sum 1 I also had not considered the fact that the bleach is really a very dilute
solution. That explains much of it very nicely. Thanks guys, I’ve got some figuring to do.
cyanureeves - 28-1-2023 at 15:07
i recall someone using concentrated bleach used for pool cleaning for a better yield on chloroform years ago. i think i tried it with powder bleach
but all went up in fumes.