Hypochlorous acid anhydride

Dichlorine monoxide is the anhydride of hypochlorous acid the two nonpolar compounds are readily interconvertible in the gas or aqueous phases via the equilibrium CI2 O + H2 0 2H0Cl. Like other chlorine oxides, CI2O has an endothermic heat of formation and is thus thermodynamically unstable with respect to decomposition into chlorine and oxygen. Dichlorine monoxide typifies the chlorine oxides as a highly reactive and explosive compound with strong oxidhing properties. Nevertheless, it can be handled safely with proper precautions. 

Some of the terms are independent of the concentration of the aromatic reactant. This rate law can best be explained in terms of the formation of CI2O, the anhydride of hypochlorous acid. 

CI2O is very soluble in water, a saturated solution at —9.4°C containing 143.6 g CI2O per 100 g H2O in fact the gas is the anhydride of hypochlorous acid, with which it is in equilibrium in aqueous solutions ... 

The effect of hypochlorous acid on acetic anhydride caused a violent detonation that was explained by the formation of a hypochlorite and/or dichlorine oxide, which are both explosive ... 

See Hypochlorous acid Acetic anhydride Metal nitrates... 

A mixture of the anhydride and hypochlorous acid exploded violently while being poured. Some acetyl hypochlorite and/or dichlorine monoxide may have been formed. 

The role of dialkylchloramines as intermediates in the chloride-catalyzed nitration of secondary amines is discussed in Section 5.3.1. Wright and co-workers" studied this reaction further and prepared a number of dialkylchloramines by treating secondary amines with aqueous hypochlorous acid (Equation 5.12). Treatment of these dialkylchloramines with nitric acid in acetic anhydride forms the corresponding secondary nitramine, a result consistent with the chloride-catalyzed nitration of amines." ... 

Wright and co-workers prepared a number of alkyldichloramines from the action of hypochlorous acid on primary amines and found these stable enough in acidic solution to undergo nitration with acetic anhydride-nitric acid mixtures to give the corresponding N-chloronitramines (Equation 5.13). A-Chloronitramines are isolatable intermediates and stable under acidic conditions, although some are sensitive and violent explosives. The presence of... 

The gas condenses to a liquid at about 4 C. It is the anhydride of hypochlorous acid that is, it reacts with water to give hypochlorous acid ... 

The liquid can be distilled at its b.p. (2°) but at higher temperatures the gas explodes. The molecule is V-shaped (Fig. 210). Here the repulsion between the bond pairs is greater than in the fluorine compound, in accordance with the closer proximity of the electrons to the oxygen. The compound is formally the anhydride of hypochlorous acid. 

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