Stable Bleaching Powder

Calcium Hypochlorite
HS Code: 28281010

Chemical Formula: Ca(OCl)2
Description

Calcium hypochlorite is an inorganic compound with formula Ca(ClO)2. It is the main active ingredient of commercial products called bleaching powder, chlorine powder, or chlorinated lime, used for water treatment and as a bleaching agents. This compound is relatively stable and has greater available chlorine than sodium hypochlorite (liquid bleach). It is a white solid, although commercial samples appear yellow. It strongly smells of chlorine, owing to its slow decomposition in moist air. It is not highly soluble in hard water, and is more preferably used in soft to medium-hard water. It has two forms: dry (anhydrous) and hydrated (hydrous).

Properties

Formula: Ca(ClO)2
IUPAC ID: Calcium hypochlorite
Molar mass: 142.98 g/mol
Other anions: Calcium chloride
Other cations: Sodium hypochlorite
Soluble in: Water

Uses

Sanitation

Calcium hypochlorite is commonly used to sanitize public swimming pools and disinfect drinking water. Generally the commercial substance is sold with a purity of a 65 to 73% with other chemicals present, such as calcium chloride and calcium carbonate, resulting from the manufacturing process. As a swimming pool chemical, it is blended with other chemicals less often than other forms of chlorine, due to dangerous reactions with some common pool chemicals. In solution, calcium hypochlorite could be used as a general purpose sanitizer, but due to calcium residue, sodium hypochlorite (bleach) is usually preferred.

Organic chemistry

Calcium hypochlorite is a general oxidizing agent and therefore finds some use in organic chemistry. For instance the compound is used to cleave glycols, α-hydroxy carboxylic acids and keto acids to yield fragmented aldehydes or carboxylic acids. Calcium hypochlorite can also be used in the haloform reaction to manufacture chloroform.