Isotopes of chlorine Isotopes of chlorine Chlorine (Cl) has 25 isotopes with mass numbers ranging from Cl to Cl and 2 isomers (Cl and Cl). There are two principal stable isotopes, Cl (75.78%) and Cl (24.22%), giving chlorine a standard atomic weight of 35.45. The longest-lived radioactive isotope is Cl, which has a half-life of 301,000 years. All other isotopes have half-lives under 1 hour, many less than one second. The shortest-lived are Cl and Cl, with half-lives less than 20 and 30 nanoseconds, respectively—the half-life of Cl is unknown. Bromine is the only other halogen with more than one stable isotope. Trace
Chlorine three times as effective against "Escherichia coli" as bromine, and more than six times as effective as iodine. It is often impractical to store and use poisonous chlorine gas for water treatment, so alternative methods of adding chlorine are used. These include hypochlorite solutions, which gradually release chlorine into the water, and compounds like sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione (dihydrate or anhydrous), sometimes referred to as "dichlor", and trichloro-s-triazinetrione, sometimes referred to as "trichlor". These compounds are stable while solid and may be used in powdered, granular, or tablet form. When added in small amounts to pool water or industrial water systems, the