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This reaction is actually an equilibrium. Could someone change the equation to having an equilibrium sign.

I second that. Don't know how to do it myself, though. RobertAustin 12:16, 2 November 2006 (UTC), Chemistry Teacher[reply]

The molecular diagram implies that this molecule is linear, but I'm 99% certain it's bent. I don't know the bond angle, but will make an attempt to find it. In the meantime, who knows how to change the pic to make HOCl bent? RobertAustin 12:16, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I wrote about 10 pages of my MS thesis on hypochlorous acid. So I went through the article and provided refs, for some of the info already present. I might also expand the article, but am not sure to what degree. I'll probably start with the 5 pages in my thesis regarding the chemical reactivity of HOCl. Also, in regards the pKa of HOCl, I changed the original info and provided a corresponding reference that I know to be a fairly thourough study of the matter. I didn't recognize the original figure provided, but if it was more accurate, change it back and provide a reference.

James.folsom 23:53, 10 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, about the date order. I got started today with a major revision that would add a great deal of information about the reactivity of HClO with biomolecules. I'm keeping it in a notepad file, and when it's complete I will just paste it in, after accounting for any other edits by other people. The problem I'm going to have is with citations: In many cases, I will need to use the same scholarly article for multiple pieces of information. If I do this with the preferred footnoting method it will result in the footnote list being cluttered with duplicate full citations. Is there a good way to do this, or am I maybe trying to provide info that is just to technical. James.folsom 23:42, 11 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What you can do, is when you finished your offline edit, is to create a page in your sandbox (you can do that by typing e.g. /sandbox after your username, so in your case e.g. the page useR:James.folsom/Sandbox), copy the contents of this page there, and merge your edits there into the article. Then when you are finished, you copy the text back to the mainspace. Gives you a bit more room to do things, without bringing the article in the main space into an unreadable state for a moment.

What I think you mean about the references. Duplicates are easy to circumvent. The first time you use a reference, you type <ref name=ref1>the text as normal</ref>. For all the next references that refer to the same reference, you now only have to type <ref name=ref1/>. See for example cyclol, there are references in the list that have a superscript "a" and a "b" (e.g. ref 2), these are made in this way (I use this page as a testversion for my rewrite of cite.php, so don't worry that you get too technical with me). In fact, it even works when you do it the other way around, but that is confusing to editors. Hope this helps. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 23:49, 11 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I added a section with a subsection that I adapted from my thesis. If this section is received w/o to much complaint, I will finish the whole section. James.folsom 06:05, 13 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was plagued by the flu. The next section I was working is now added.

What precursor? —DIV (128.250.80.15 (talk) 09:26, 7 March 2008 (UTC))[reply]

Shouldn't the formula be HOCl, or ClOH? Or even ClHO? The molecule is a Chlorine atom bonded to a hydroxide ion, and the formula HClO is misleading. 72.195.132.121 (talk) 05:09, 3 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's called HClO in my chemistry class. It's to make it match the rest of the chlorine-based acids: chlorous, chloric, and perchloric. JBogdan (talk) 02:23, 29 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Most of the journal articles I have read (mostly in medical physiology, lipid chemistry, etc) use HOCl, but many of the text/teaching sources use HClO in order to make the comparison to other oxychlorines (as mentioned by JBogdan). So, both are used and preference depends on how and where your using it. Tmbirkhead (talk) 05:41, 25 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The production of hypochlorous acid by a specialized electrolysis of salty water (H₂O+NaCl) is getting some current publicity as a method for creating cleaning and disinfecting solutions for hotels and restaurants. This article needs a new section to discuss how electrolysis can produce hypochlorous acid. Attention needs to be given to catalysts as well as solutions for the following problems that can occur with naive electrolysis:

• Generation of toxic and/or unwanted compounds, e.g. Cl₂ gas and HCl.
• Deposition of nonconducting compounds on one or both electrodes due to the use of impure water containing e.g. calcium compounds.
• Oxidation of the electrode (especially when metallic electrodes made of e.g. Ti or Cu are used).
• The large amount of energy (power and time) required to make large amounts of NaOH and HOCl (but note that lower concentrations are actually commercially useful).

David (talk) 19:50, 1 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I used this chloralkali process several times; to produce hydrogen, chlorine, hydrochloric acid, hypochlorous acid, and sodium hydroxide. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.221.179.18 (talk) 22:36, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've added a brief mention of practical generation to the Uses section. David Spector (talk) 21:24, 28 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Salt water chlorination is hardly a "recent" technology, having been introduced as a method of chlorinating swimming pools more than forty years ago, in the early 1970's. Vaughan Pratt (talk) 03:51, 8 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

My college textbook for chemistry (published in 2012 by Cengage) shows that this should be HClO, not HOCl. It is part of a pattern for these acids: hypochlorous (HClO), chlorous (HClO₂), chloric (HClO₃), and perchloric (HClO₄). Any objections to me changing it? JBogdan (talk) 02:41, 29 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Whatever convention you decide. The examples you give are in IUPAC "salt notation" where electropositive H goes first follows by polyatomic anion. Like H2SO4. So there you would have HClO as the acid. But for semi structural molecular chemical formula it's ClOH or HOCl since H isn't bonded to chlorine. The empirical rules have C and H priority then alphabetical, so there you get HClO also. [1] SBHarris 07:09, 29 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like no one has been able to decide the convention yet. Just now I tossed a coin and it came up HClO. Anyone objecting to my changing the HOCl's to HClO is welcome to change the HClO's to HOCL instead, in which case I won't object. Vaughan Pratt (talk) 03:38, 8 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I wrote alot of this article a long time ago, feel free to do whatever with this. James.folsom (talk) 21:24, 19 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Surely a reason can be found for such an unexpected statement, given all the valuable uses that are listed. Also, what are the ingredients of this substance? "...a stable formulation..." is neither clear nor complete. Let's make this section encyclopedic, please. Important note: Hypomide is a trademark of Genus Pharmaceuticals Ltd for hand sanitizer and is also a trademark of Lennon Limited (South Africa) for the diabetic medicine Chlorpropamide. If this section is simply in error or marketing drivel, let's delete it. Reference: https://web.archive.org/web/20120425021135/http://www.hypomide.com/welcome.html David Spector (talk) 18:21, 8 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A web search shows only copies of this WP section, which itself is a copy of a marketing website for Genus Pharmaceuticals Ltd that existed only briefly. Therefore, based on this section not being notable or having a reliable reference, I believe that this section should be removed and I will now do so. Misleading or inaccurate information should not be retained in WP. David Spector (talk) 18:25, 8 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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The external link to 'Royal Society of Chemistry-'The Mole' Magazine, MARCH 2014 issue' will refer to the specific article 'From ground to tap' by Sue Thompson, published in The Mole, March 2014, p1. However, this now resides on the Education in Chemistry website at https://eic.rsc.org/feature/from-ground-to-tap/3007355.article. I'll refrain from updating the external link due to a conflict of interest. Msuxg (talk) 08:08, 9 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The article has a nearly random distribution of these two formulae, leading to confusing statements such as "HClO reacts with HCl to form chlorine gas: HOCl + HCl → H2O + Cl2".

For heaven's sake, would someone please fix this? Add a mention up top explaining that the two formulae are both in common use, but then PICK ONE FORMULA and replace all the instances of the other with the chosen version.

I'm not any kind of chemist, and I can't even suggest on what basis one should choose a formula, so I'm not going to do this myself. But someone should, as soon as possible. 67.188.1.213 (talk) 02:27, 22 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

See my previous comment, in my industry at the time I wrote the bulk of that article, HOCl is what was used. Back then, I don't think I ever saw HClO then. The problem with this has been dicussed here further, and centers around different interests having different preference. As a primary author I will weigh in again that I have no preference, but if any one changes it, someone will change it back. James.folsom (talk) 21:31, 19 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

https://jimhumble.co/faq/what-is-mms2 It looks like he will keep moving up the reactivity scale until it really starts killing people. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.65.191.122 (talk) 03:38, 20 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Where is a reference to this being allowed per IUPAC? Exaeta (talk) 18:39, 17 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Why is it still rated "starter"? I always thought someone would remove all the highly academic stuff I added years ago. Still on the fence about that. James.folsom (talk) 21:38, 19 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]