Cl vs Cl2

[Eileen Quach Dis 2A]

When a questions says chlorine gas instead of chlorine, does that mean we write Cl2 instead of Cl? Also, do we do this everytime we see the word "gas"? For example, if the problem says oxygen gas, would we write O2 instead of O?

[Stuti Pradhan 2J]

Yes, chlorine gas is Cl2. There are 7 diatomic molecules (H,O,N,Cl,Br,I,F), so whenever these are gases or "exist naturally", you should use the subscript 2.

Hope this helps!

[SainehaMaddineni_3I]

Yes, Cl2 is the correct way if it says chlorine gas. Oxygen would also be O2. This is because these elements exist as diatomic molecules.

[tholz11]

Yes, Chlorine gas would be Cl2 and Oxygen gas would be O2

[Astha Patel 2J]

Chlorine and Oxygen gas are both diatomic molecules and will be written Cl2 and O2.

[Nayra Gharpetian 3F]

Yes! chlorine gas is a diatomic molecule and therefore chlorine gas is Cl2

[Aria Movassaghi 1A]

O and Cl are both diatomic molecules so they will have the 2 subscript.

[Callan Howard]

Yup!

[Alessia Renna 1D]

Correct! Cl2 is chlorine gas!

[Brian Acevedo 2E]

Correct, Cl2 is used when referring to chlorine gas but Cl just refers to a chlorine atom.