Chlorine but not recognised as a fundamentally important substance. Carl Wilhelm Scheele wrote a description of chlorine gas in 1774, supposing it to be an oxide of a new element. In 1809, chemists suggested that the gas might be a pure element, and this was confirmed by Sir Humphry Davy in 1810, who named it from based on its colour. Because of its great reactivity, all chlorine in the Earth's crust is in the form of ionic chloride compounds, which includes table salt. It is the second-most abundant halogen (after fluorine) and twenty-first most abundant chemical element in Earth's crust. These
Fluorine perchlorate in a rare oxidation state of 0, due to the electronegativity of oxygen, which is higher than that of chlorine but lower than that of fluorine. FClO has a very dangerous and unpredictable series of reactions associated with it, as a covalent perchlorate (chlorine in the +7 oxidation state) and a compound featuring a very sensitive O-F single bond. Small amounts of reducing agent, such as organic compounds, can trigger explosive detonation. Products of these decomposition reactions could include oxygen halides, interhalogen compounds, and other hazardous substances. Accidental synthesis is possible if precursors are carelessly mixed. Like similar covalent fluorides