Question

The uses of bleaching powder are:
(A) It is used bleaching cotton
(B) It is used as an oxidizing agent in chemical industries
(C) It can be used for disinfecting water
(D) All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Bleaching powder is a colorless white powder which is produced when quicklime is mixed or slaked with water and chlorine. It’s used in industrial settings, such as sewage treatment, paper production and food processing etc.

Complete step by step answer:
> Bleaching powder is manufactured using Backmann’s plant in which slack and chlorine are made to react to create Bleaching powder. It’s a yellowish white powder with a strong smell of chlorine. When exposed to air, bleaching powder reacts with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce calcium carbonate and chlorine.
> Let us know the preparation of bleaching powder.
Bleaching powder is synthesized by the action of chlorine gas, the gas which is produced from the chlor-alkali process, on dry slaked lime.
\[{ Ca(OH) }_{ 2 }+{ Cl }_{ 2 }\longrightarrow { CaOCl }_{ 2 }+{ H }_{ 2}{O}\]
Let’s see how bleaching powder actually bleaches.
In the presence of a very small amount of dilute acid, it produces nascent oxygen. Due to the evolution of nascent oxygen, it acts as an oxidizing agent and a bleaching agent.
> Uses of bleaching powder:
1) It is used for bleaching dirty clothes in the laundry, as a bleaching agent for cotton and linen in the textile industry.
2) It is a strong oxidizing agent hence used as an oxidizer in many industries.
3) It is used as a disinfectant which is used for disinfecting water to make potable water. Therefore, option D is the required answer.

Note: Exposure to bleaching powder can be dangerous or even fatal if it mixes with other household chemicals. For example, when combined with ammonia, bleaching powder will create a toxic gas called chloramines.