Chlorination Revisited: Does Cl Serve as a Catalyst in the Chlorination of Phenols?

The aqueous chlorination of (chloro)phenols is one of the best-studied reactions in the environmental literature. Previous researchers have attributed these reactions to two chlorine species: HOCl (at circum-neutral and high pH) and HOCl (at low pH). In this study, we seek to examine the roles that two largely overlooked chlorine species, Cl and ClO, may play in the chlorination of (chloro)phenols.