Question

chlorine dioxide (clo₂) is used in paper manufacturing to bleach wood pulp. in sunlight, it decomposes into chlorine gas (cl₂) and oxygen gas (o₂). which model accurately represents this reaction?

Explanation:

Step1: Write the unbalanced chemical equation

The chemical formula for chlorine dioxide is \(ClO_2\), for chlorine gas is \(Cl_2\), and for oxygen gas is \(O_2\). The unbalanced equation is \(ClO_2
ightarrow Cl_2 + O_2\).

Step2: Balance the chemical equation

We use the method of balancing atoms. For chlorine atoms, we have 1 on the left - hand side and 2 on the right - hand side. For oxygen atoms, we have 2 on the left - hand side and 2 on the right - hand side. By putting a coefficient of 2 in front of \(ClO_2\), we get \(2ClO_2
ightarrow Cl_2 + 2O_2\).

In the molecular - model representation:

• The first model has 1 \(ClO_2\) molecule decomposing into 1 \(Cl_2\) and 1 \(O_2\), which is unbalanced.
• The second model has 2 \(ClO_2\) molecules decomposing into 1 \(Cl_2\) and 2 \(O_2\), which is balanced according to the equation \(2ClO_2

ightarrow Cl_2 + 2O_2\).

• The third model has 2 \(ClO_2\) molecules decomposing into 2 \(Cl_2\) and 1 \(O_2\), which is unbalanced.

Answer:

The second model (the one with two \(ClO_2\) molecules decomposing into one \(Cl_2\) molecule and two \(O_2\) molecules) accurately represents the reaction.