Is Chlorine Gas Soluble and Highly Reactive Due to Its Covalent Bond?

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Chlorine gas is soluble in water due to its ability to undergo a disproportionation reaction, where it reacts with water to form hydrochloric acid (HCl) and hypochlorous acid (HClO). This reaction involves chlorine being both oxidized and reduced, allowing it to dissolve in water rather than simply undergoing hydration. The resulting chlorine ions from HCl contribute to its solubility.Despite chlorine gas being nonpolar, its reactivity increases significantly in the presence of water, as it forms ionic compounds like HCl. This reaction facilitates chlorine's interaction with other ionic compounds and organic substances, enhancing its overall reactivity.
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Why is chlorine gas soluble considering that it isn't polar?

also, why is it so reactive because it has a covalent bond (~ +240KJ)?
 
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Chlorine gas is soluble because it disproportionates in water.
 
1) Chlorine actually will react with according to the equation:

Cl2 + H2O → HCl + HClO

This is a disproportionation reaction whereby Chlorine is both oxidised ( 0 in Cl2 to 1- in HCl) and reduced ( 0 in Cl2 to 1+ in HClO).

This is rather a reaction than ordinary hydration. Thus, this happens relatively spontaneous. The Chlorine ions in HCl will ultimately becomes soluble in water, thus, chlorine will be soluble in water. Hope this answer your question.

2) As of my best understanding of Chemistry, chlorine gas is not reactive. However, as we have discussed earlier, chlorine will react with water to form HCl (hydrochloric acid) which is an ionic compounds. This enables HCl or some prefer to say chlorine to react readily with other ionic compounds as well as some organic substances.

The presence of water will greatly increases the reactivity of chlorine.
 

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