Chloroform

Chloroform

Chloroform, or trichloromethane, is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is a powerful anesthetic, euphoriant, anxiolytic and sedative when inhaled or ingested. Chloro Form is also used in pesticide formulations, as a solvent for fats, oils, rubber, alkaloids, waxes, gutta-percha, and resins.

About Chloroform in brief

Summary ChloroformChloroform, or trichloromethane, is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is a powerful anesthetic, euphoriant, anxiolytic and sedative when inhaled or ingested. The molecule adopts a tetrahedral molecular geometry with C3v symmetry. The total global flux of chloroform through the environment is approximately 660000 tonnes per year, and about 90% of emissions are natural in origin. Many kinds of seaweed produce chloro Form, and fungi are believed to produce it in soil. Deuterochloroform is produced by the haloform reaction, the reaction of acetone with sodium hypochlorite. Chloro Form is also used in pesticide formulations, as a solvent for fats, oils, rubber, alkaloids, waxes, gutta-percha, and resins. It can also be used as a cleansing agent, grain fumigant, in fire extinguishers, and in the rubber industry. CDCl3 is a common solvent used in NMR spectroscopy. In a variety of alkanes, chloroForm hydrogen bonds to bases such as CCl4 and HCCl4 as a hard acid. As a reagent, it serves as a source of dichlorocarbene, which can be trapped by an alkene group in the C2–Tiemann reaction. This reagent can produce an orthoform effect, producing aldehydes in a reaction known as the Reimer–Tannene reaction.

It also acts as a catalyst to produce aqueous sodium hydroxide, usually in the presence of a catalytic amount of mixed antimony halides, which is used in the production of PTFE and other refrigerants. It has a half-life of 55 to 620 days in air, and its degradation in water and soil is slow. It does not significantly bioaccumulate in aquatic organisms. The hydrogen attached to carbon in chloroforms participates in hydrogen bonding. Before the Montreal Protocol, chlorodifluoromethanes was also a popular refrigerant. It was also used to make Teflon and other household cleaning products. It’s also used as an anti-fungal agent in household cleaners and detergents, as well as as a cleaning agent for fats and oils, and as a solvents for rubber and other oils and waxes. The most important reaction of chlorOform is with hydrogen fluoride to give monochlorodiflumine, a precursor to polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) The reaction is conducted in the Presence of a Catalytic Amount of Mixed Antimony Halides (HCW)