Iodoform is the organoiodine compound with the formula C H I 3. A pale yellow, crystalline, volatile substance, it has a penetrating odor (in older chemistry texts, the smell is sometimes referred to as the smell of hospitals) and, analogous to chloroform, sweetish taste. It is occasionally used as a disinfectant.t is synthesized in the haloform reaction by the reaction of iodine and sodium hydroxide with any one of these four kinds of organic compounds: (i) a methyl ketone: CH 3 COR, acetaldehyde (CH 3 CHO), ethanol (CH 3 CH 2 OH), and certain secondary alcohols (CH 3 CHROH, where R is an alkyl or aryl group).
In a molecular formula, a subscript is written immediately after the letter denoting an element and refers to the amount of atoms that element has. A molecular formula, or empirical formula, is noted as a series of letters and numbers that represent a compound, or a molecule.
Chemical reactions are represented on paper by chemical equations. For example, hydrogen gas (H2) can react (burn) with oxygen gas (O2) to form water (H20). The chemical equation for this reaction is written as: The '+' is read as 'reacts with' and the arrow '' means 'produces'. The chemical formulas on the left represent the starting substances, called reactants.