Chloric acid: Encyclopedia - Chloric acid

Chloric acid

Chloric acid, HClO₃, is an oxoacid of chlorine, and the formal precursor of chlorate salts. It is a strong acid (pK_a ≈ −1) and oxidising agent.

It is prepared by the reaction of sulfuric acid with barium chlorate, the insoluble barium sulfate being removed by precipitation:

It is stable in cold aqueous solution up to a concentration of approx. 30%, and solution of up to 40% can be prepared by careful evaporation under reduced pressure. Above these concentrations, and on warming, chloric acid solutions decompose to give a variety of products, for example:

The decomposition is controlled by kinetic factors: indeed, chloric acid is never thermodynamically stable with respect to disproportionation.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Chloric acid", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki