Use the problem below to answer the question: when a current is passed through a solution of salt water, sodium chloride decomposes according to the following reaction: nacl + h2o → naoh + cl2 + h2 how many grams of chlorine gas, cl2 are given off if 7.5 grams of sodium chloride, nacl, are decomposed? is this equation balanced?

4.544 grams of chlorine gas is produced in the given reaction.

Explanation: Number of moles can be calculated by using the formula:

    ... (1)

Molar mass of NaCl = 58.5 g/mol

Given mass of NaCl = 7.5 grams

Moles of NaCl is calculated by:

Moles of NaCl = 0.128 moles

The given equation is not balanced. For any further calculation, we first need to balance the equation.

The balanced chemical equation follows:

By Stoichiometry,

2 moles of NaCl produce 1 mole of chlorine gas

So, 0.128 moles of NaCl will produce = = 0.064 moles of chlorine gas

Mass of Chlorine gas is calculated by using equation 1, we get

Molar mass of = 71 g/mol

Putting the values in above equation, we get

Mass of produced = 4.544 grams