Q. What products are expected from the disproportionation reaction of hypochlorous acid?
Jharkhand CECEJharkhand CECE 2011
Solution:
In disproportionation reactions, the same element is oxidised as well as reduced. In $ \text{HOCl,} $ the oxidation state of $ \text{Cl} $ is $ +\,1. $ In $ \text{HCl}{{\text{O}}_{\text{3}}}\text{,C}{{\text{l}}_{\text{2}}}\text{O,}\,\text{HCl}{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}}\text{,}\,\text{HCl}{{\text{O}}_{\text{4}}} $ and $ \text{HCl,} $ the oxidation states of Cl are $ +\,5,+\,1,+\,3,+\,7 $ and $ -1 $ respectively. Thus, the disproportionation products are $ \text{HCl} $ and $ \text{HCl}{{\text{O}}_{3}}. $
