Talk:Hypochlorite

Equilibrium
"Therefore, by Le Chatelier's principle, a high pH drives the reaction to the left by consuming H+ ions, promoting the disproportionation of chlorine into chloride and hypochlorite, whereas a low pH drives the reaction to the right, promoting the release of chlorine gas." is stated in the article. However, wouldn't this equilibrium be difficult to reverse at low H+ concentration primarily due to the escape of gas phase Cl2, rather than any Le chatalier's principle type effects? ShiinaMikado (talk) 09:28, 28 May 2012 (UTC) Sarwar Husain — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.160.81.210 (talk) 09:40, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Two elements are at play here, and should be separated to tell the true story. The first part is clear: by LeChatlier, and backed up by the math: an excess of protons will drive the reaction to the right. This is a fully reversible process. Only when an irreversible process occurs will the reaction be fully driven to completion. Here, the irreversible process is determined by the solubility of chlorine gas in water--which is quite low. When the reaction is driven to the right to form chlorine, the water solution becomes oversaturated, and chlorine bubbles out of solution. Outside of a closed vessel, chlorine leaves the water and won't come back spontaneously--a thermodynamic miracle. (I'm at work and don't have the time to write a proper wiki entry, so a talk note should suffice.)--204.44.137.252 (talk) 14:56, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Question
I have talked with one of my old chem professors and he said that ClO- is produced when Cl2 is in water. I don't currently have any documentation of this so if you have any please add this. Martinac (talk) 02:14, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Chlorination has a little information on this reaction. --Spiffy sperry (talk) 19:29, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Chlorate
The article says that "An unqualified "chlorate" typically refers only to the +5 oxidation state", I was taught in A-Level chemistry that "chlorate" meant chlorate(I). Why should it mean chlorate(V) is this a specific naming convention involving the highest oxidation state? It would make more sense to me for chlorate to mean chlorate(I) because as far as I know, this is the most common oxyanion as it is produced in the disproportionation of chlorine in water, although this article claims that is not the case, the one linked to above claims it is. Can someone cite the claim and clear up the confusion of how common the ions are. On a side note, I have never heard of "hypochlorite", I came here to find out what it was as I saw it on a bottle of bleach, only to find out that it is chlorate(I), is this just a case of people still using the old name more frequently despite IUPAC nomenclature rules, as with ethanoic acid and hundreds of others? Will Bradshaw (talk) 12:41, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
 * No, it isn't. The IUPAC name for hypochlorite is hypochlorite. As in "sodium hypochlorite". The acid is hypochlorous acid. If you're going to argue for a chlorate(I), you're going to have to find a source. The Red Book says chlorate is V, like all oxyanions. See IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry. There's a nice table of oxidation states and discussion of oxides here.  S  B Harris 23:26, 28 May 2012 (UTC)

Biosynthesis?
I removed this section because it seemed so strange and unlikely to impact. Is it referring the chloroperoxidase?

The human immune system generates minute quantities of hypochlorite during the destruction of pathogens. This takes place within special white blood cells, called neutrophil granulocytes, which engulf viruses and bacteria in an intracellular vacuole called the phagosome, where they are digested. Part of the digestion mechanism involves an enzyme-mediated respiratory burst, which produces reactive oxygen-derived compounds, including superoxide (which is produced by NADPH oxidase). Superoxide decays to oxygen and hydrogen peroxide, which is used in a myeloperoxidase-catalysed reaction to convert chloride to hypochlorite. "
 * I think I wrote that but it was 5 years ago. Looking at page histories it would seem there was mention of biosynthesis before that and I was trying to make sense of it (the article had a total of 1 ref at the time). The myeloperoxidase article does state chloride to hypochlorite via biosynthesized hydrogen peroxide - so as far as I know I had to right, but this is well outside my normal area. BTW, if yu're looking for something interesting to add, this (open access) ref is an interesting read --Project Osprey (talk) 08:28, 19 April 2018 (UTC)
 * OK, I will put it back.--Smokefoot (talk) 14:34, 19 April 2018 (UTC)

Any crystal structure on any hypochlorite?
If anyone finds a report on any crystal structures on any hypochlorite, leave a note. I can find nothing on NaOCl or Ca derivatives, which is very surprising. My attempted sources was FIZ Karlsruhe. These salts are reputed to be rarely obtained in pure form, but I would have thought some diligent scientist somewhere would have gotten a crystal. --Smokefoot (talk) 14:34, 19 April 2018 (UTC)
 * I think this is one for the pentahydrate but I lack access. Enjoy . --Project Osprey (talk) 15:25, 22 March 2021 (UTC)
 * . Great catch.  This article does not mention the Cl-O distance, which we should include in this article.  I also looked through Greenwood and Earshaw, who write extensively on hypochlorites, but could not find the Cl-O distance.  They give the Cl-O distance for HOCl, but not the anion.  Thank you for your help and let me know if I can return the favor.  --Smokefoot (talk) 16:08, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

There's this. A bit old and the title "The probable model of the crystal structure of the twobase calcium hypochlorite" is not exactly emphatic, but it's a structure. The Cl–O distance measures 2.096 Å in CCDC Mercury, so let's say 2.1 Å. --Ben (talk) 00:39, 23 March 2021 (UTC)