Question #b63f4

1 Answer
Dec 22, 2016

Absorbs uv light

Explanation:

Bond breaking, whether homolytic or heterolytic, requires energy to be provided. The energy bend energy of a Cl-Cl bond is about +243kJ/mol, so this is the amount of energy that has to be supplied to break a mole of Cl-Cl bonds.

If we divide this amount by Avogadro's number we get the energy required to break one Cl-Cl bond, and using E=h#nu# we can determine the frequency corresponding to this: it turns out to be in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hence, we can't break Cl-Cl bonds using infrared or visible light, but we can break them and form radicals using uv light of the appropriate energy.