What property of paradichlorobenzene may convince you that it is an ingredient in mothballs?

Question

Please help. I have no idea. I did search up mothballs and (PDB) is an ingredient but I don't know what property of PDB convinces that it's an ingredient.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

What property of paradichlorobenzene may convince you that it is an ingredient in mothballs?

What an odd question. The question doesn't say what sort of property the questionner is looking for.

PDB is an insecticide, which would make it useful in moth balls. We might guess this from the two chlorine atoms.

PDB in small quantities is not toxic to humans. There is no way to know this from the structure.

PDB is a solid at room temperature. Might guess this from the molecular mass and that it looks as though it is a fairly polar molecule. From this we might also conclude that it will have a slight solubility in water.

The property of PDB that you can't possibly deduce from the structre is that the solid has a significant vapour pressure at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. I.e. the solid phase will evaporate directly to the gas phase. Colloqually we say it 'sublimes', a scientist should say it evaporates.