It takes to break an carbon-chlorine single bond. Calculate the maximum wavelength of light for which an carbon-chlorine single bond could be broken by absorbing a single photon. Round your answer to significant digits.

It takes approximately of energy to break one single bond.

The maximum wavelength of a photon that can break one such bond is approximately (in vacuum.) That's the same as (rounded to three significant figures.)

Explanation:

The standard bond enthalpy of single bonds is approximately (note that the exact value can varies across sources.) In other words, it would take approximately of energy to break one mole of these bonds.

The Avogadro Constant gives the number of bonds in one mole of these bonds. Based on these information, calculate the energy of one such bond:

.

Therefore, it would take approximately of energy to break one single bond.

The Einstein-Planck Relation relates the frequency of a photon to its energy :

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The here represents the Planck Constant:

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A photon that can break one single bond should have more than of energy. Apply the Einstein-Planck Relation to find the frequency of a photon with exactly that much energy:

.

What would be the wavelength of a photon with a frequency of approximately ? The exact answer to that depends on the medium that this photon is travelling through. To be precise, the exact answer depends on the speed of light in that medium:

.

In vacuum, the speed of light is . Therefore, the wavelength of that photon in vacuum would be:

.

(Side note: that wavelength corresponds to a photon in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum.)

petroleum? coal maybe?