Chlorine devastating because the existing gas masks were difficult to deploy and had not been broadly distributed. Chlorine is the second halogen, being a nonmetal in group 17 of the periodic table. Its properties are thus similar to fluorine, bromine, and iodine, and are largely intermediate between those of the first two. Chlorine has the electron configuration [Ne]3s3p, with the seven electrons in the third and outermost shell acting as its valence electrons. Like all halogens, it is thus one electron short of a full octet, and is hence a strong oxidising agent, reacting with many elements in order to complete
Fluorine perchlorate Fluorine perchlorate Perchloryl Hypofluorite is the rarely encountered chemical compound of fluorine, chlorine, and oxygen with the chemical formula or . It is an extremely unstable gas that explodes spontaneously and has a penetrating odor. One synthesis uses fluorine and perchloric acid, though the action of ClF on water is another method. Another method of synthesis involves the thermal decomposition of tetrafluoroammonium perchlorate, , which yields very pure that may be manipulated and frozen without explosions. Fluorine perchlorate is not analogous to perchloric acid because the fluorine atom does not exist as a positive ion. It contains an oxygen atom