What is chloroform used for?

Question

The only thing ive ever heard it be used for was to kidnap people...What IS it exactly and what was the purpose of creating it? ( pleaseeeee dont use really scientific words that are long and confusing haha)

Answer 1

Hey I just wanted to let you know that I emailed you about the rash, even though it doesn't relate to this question what so ever. haha.

Answer 2

The kidnapping thing only works in the movies. As an anaesthetic, chloroform is much too slow to be effective. There is no way you could just clap a chloroform-soaked cloth over someone's face and they would immediately go to sleep.

Like most such compounds, chloroform was originally created as a byproduct of chemical research. It was found to have certain useful properties (including anaesthesia) and ways were then developed to produce the material in quantity. It was commonly used as an anaesthetic, a solvent, a fire extinguishing material, and as a chemical reagent for use in synthetic reactions. Its primary use now is as an organic solvent (that's as in organic chemistry, not organic farming... big difference!).

The molecule of chloroform is composed of one H atom and three Cl atoms attached to a single C atom, so it has the molecular formula CHCl3.

Like essentially all such halocarbon molecules (halo- for the halogen atoms like Cl, I, Br, and F, and carbon for...well...carbon), chloroform has been found to have a number of undesirable effects such as being cancer-causing, poisonous, and contributing to smog and the destruction of the ozone layer (it is after all a very reactive material whose use became common before any of these ill effects were realized). As a result, the use of chloroform today is very restricted.