Chlorine was first produced in 1774 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele in Sweden. Scheele collected the gas released by the reaction of pyrolusite [manganese dioxide] with spiritus salis – an alchemical term meaning spirit/breath of salt. [It was also known as muriatic acid and we now call it hydrochloric acid.] The new gas had, according to Scheele, “a very perceptible suffocating smell, which was most oppressive to the lungs… and gives the water a slightly acidic taste… the air in it acquires a yellow color…”
| Classification: | Chlorine is a halogen and a nonmetal |
| Color: | greenish-yellow |
| Atomic weight: | 35.453 |
| State: | gas |
| Melting point: | -101 oC , 172 K |
| Boiling point: | -34 oC , 239 K |
| Electrons: | 17 |
| Protons: | 17 |
| Neutrons in most abundant isotope: | 18 |
| Electron shells: | 2,8,7 |
| Electron configuration: | 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p5 |
| Density @ 20oC: | 0.003214 g/cm3 |
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