Green Chemistry Approach

This is a green chemistry experiment. The purpose of using a green approach to this experiment is to introduce safer conditions with less hazardous reagents. This experiment combines sodium iodide, a salt, with household bleach an oxidizing agent) in aqueous ethanol to generate the electrophilic iodine species. Sodium Hypochlorite, NaOCI, is the active ingredient in a "chlorine bleach". Household bleach contain about 5% of the hypochlorite. These reaction conditions are more environmentally friendly because NaOCl is less hazardous than the traditional HNO3 oxidant and ethanol is a relatively benign solvent. An added benefit to using the green chemistry conditions is that these reaction conditions are more selective and yield mostly the mono-iodinated product.