Question

What happens when chloroform is heated with silver powder?

Answer 1

The chloroform molecule has a molecular formulae $CHC{{l}_{3}}$.The reaction involved here is the double displacement reaction which will displace the atoms each other in the reaction vessel and form new compounds.

Complete step-by-step answer: In the question it is asked that what will be the observation when chloroform is heated with Ag powder.
Before going into the solution let us discuss the reactants and the type of reaction involved in the given reaction.
The molecular formula of chloroform is $CHC{{l}_{3}}$, it is also called trichloromethane. It is a colorless and denser liquid which has a strong- smell. The other reactant involved is Ag powder.
When the chloroform is heated with silver powder then a double displacement reaction will take place i.e. the ions of the two reactants involved in this reaction will exchange with each other and form new compounds.
Chloroform and silver powder react with each other and exchange the ions with each other to form acetylene molecules which are also called ethyne and silver chloride.
The chemical equation of the reaction is as follows:
$2CHC{{l}_{3}}+6Ag\xrightarrow{\Delta }{{C}_{2}}{{H}_{2}}+6AgCl$
The molecule ${{C}_{2}}{{H}_{2}}$is called acetylene which is a colourless gas with no odour.
In this reaction the silver acts as the reducing reagent and Ag gets oxidized from 0 to +1 whereas carbon gets reduced from +2 to -1. So we could say that the reaction involved here is a redox reaction.

Note: The Ag powder is synthesized by reducing silver nitrate with glycerol and here glycerol acts as the solvent for the reaction. The above given reaction can be proceeded with tribromomethane (bromoform) or triiodomethane (iodoform) since the structure of iodoform and bromoform resembles chloroform.