Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 4

Bromine - Br

Chemical properties of bromine - Health effects of bromine - Environmental effects of bromine

Atomic number Atomic mass Electronegativity according to Pauling Density Melting point Boiling point Vander Waals radius Ionic radius Isotopes Electronic shell Energy of first ionization Standard potential Discovered by

35 79.904 g.mol -1 2.8 3.1 g.cm-3 at 20C - 7.2 C 58.8 C 0.165 nm 0.195 nm (-1) 10 [ Ar ] 3d10 4s2 4p5 1142.7 kJ.mol -1 1.08 V Anthoine Balard in 1826

Bromine
At ambient temperature bromine is a brownish-red liquid. It has a similarly colored vapor with an offensive and suffocating odor. It is the only nonmetallic element that is liquid under ordinary conditions, it evaporates easily at standard temperature and pressures in a red vapor that has a strong disagreeable odor resembling that of chlorine. Bromine is less active chemically than chlorine and fluorine but is more active than iodine; its compounds are similar to those of the other halogens. Bromine is soluble in organic solvents and in water.

Applications
Bromine is used in industry to make organobromo compounds. A major one was dibromoethane an agent for leaded gasoline, before they were largely phased out due to environmental considerations. Other organ bromines are used as insecticides, in fire extinguishers and to make pharmaceuticals. Bromine is used in making fumigants, dyes, flame proofing agents, water purification compounds, sanitizes, medicinal, agents for photography and in brominates vegetable oil, used as emulsifier in many citrus-flavored soft drinks.

Bromine in the environment


Bromine is a naturally occurring element that can be found in many inorganic substances. Humans however, have many years ago started the introduction of organic bromines in the environment. These are all compounds that are not natural and can cause serious harm to human health and the environment. In diffuse crustal rock bromine naturally occurs as bromide salts. Bromine salts have accumulated in sea water (85 ppm), from which bromine is extracted. World production of bromine is more than 300.000 tonnes per year; the three main producing countries are US, Istrael and the UK. In this last case it is extracted from sea water at a plant on the coast of Anglesey, Wales.

HISTORY

Bromine was discovered in 1826 by the French chemist Antoine-Jerome Balard in the residues (bitterns) from the manufacture of sea salt at Montpellier. He liberated the element by passingchlorine through an aqueous solution of the residues, which contained magnesium bromide. Distillation of the material with manganese dioxide and sulfuric acid produced red vapors, which condensed to a dark liquid. The similarity of this procedure to that for making chlorine suggested to Balard that he had obtained a new element similar to chlorine. (The German chemist Justus von Liebig appears to have obtained the element before Balard, but he wrongly considered it to be iodine chloride.) Because of the bad odour of the element, the French Academy of Sciences suggested the name bromine, from the Greek word bromos, meaning bad smell or stench. Physical and Chemical Properties Free bromine is a reddish-brown liquid with an appreciable vapour pressure at room temperature. Bromine vapour is amber in color. Bromine has a pungent odor and is irritating to the skin, eyes, and respiratory system. Exposure to concentrated bromine vapor, even for a short time, may be fatal. Like the other halogens, bromine exists as diatomic molecules in all aggregation states. About 3.41 grams (0.12 ounce) of bromine dissolve in 100 millilitres (0.1 quart) of water at room temperature. The solution is known as bromine water. Like chlorine water, it is a good oxidizing agent, and it is more useful because it does not decompose so readily. It liberates free iodine from iodide-containing solutions and sulfur from hydrogen sulfide. Sulfurous acid is oxidized by bromine water to sulfuric acid. In sunlight bromine water decomposes, with release of oxygen, as in the following equation:

From bromine water a hydrate (a clathrate) can be isolated that contains 172 water molecules and 20 cavities capable of accommodating the bromine molecules. Bromine dissolves in aqueous alkali hydroxide solutions, giving bromides, hypobromites, or bromates, depending on the temperature. Bromine is readily extracted from water by organic solvents such as tetrachloride, chloroform, or carbon disulfide, in which it is very soluble. In the organic solvents it gives an orange solution. The electron affinity of bromine is high and is similar to that of chlorine. It is, however, a less powerful oxidizing agent, chiefly because of the weaker hydration of the bromide ion as compared with the chloride ion. Similarly, a metal-bromine bond is weaker than the corresponding metalchlorine bond, and this difference is reflected in the chemical reactivity of bromine, which lies between that of chlorine and that of iodine. An organic bromo compound resembles the corresponding chloro derivative but is usually more dense, less volatile, less combustible, and less stable.

Bromine combines violently with the alkali metals and with phosphorus, arsenic, aluminum, and antimony but less violently with certain other metals. Bromine displaces hydrogen from saturated hydrocarbons and ads to unsaturated hydrocarbons, though not as readily as chlorine does. The most stable oxidation state of the element is 1, in which bromine occurs naturally. But oxidation states of 0 (elemental bromine, Br2), +1 (hypobromite, BrO), +3 (bromite, BrO2), +5 (bromate, BrO3), and +7 (perbromate, BrO4) are also known. The first ionization energy of bromine is high, and compounds containing bromine in positive oxidation numbers are stabilized by appropriate ligands, mainly oxygen and fluorine. Compounds with the oxidation numbers +1, +3, +4, +5, and +7 all contain covalent bonds.
Production and Uses

The chief commercial source of bromine is ocean water, from which the element is extracted by means of chemical displacement (oxidation) by chlorine in the presence of sulfuric acid through the reaction

The product of the reaction is a dilute solution of bromine, from which the element is removed by blowing air through it. The free bromine is then mixed with sulfur dioxide, and the mixed gases are passed up a tower down which water is trickling. The following reaction takes place in the tower:

resulting in a mixture of acids that is much richer in bromide ion than seawater. A second treatment with chlorine liberates bromine, which is freed from chlorine and purified by passage over moist iron filings. Commercial bromine generally contains up to 0.3 percent chlorine. It is usually stored in glass bottles or in barrels coated with lead or Monel metal. The industrial usage of bromine had been dominated by the compound ethylene bromide(C2H4Br2), which once was added to gasoline with tetraethyl lead to prevent deposition of lead in the engine. Since the renunciation of leaded gasoline, bromine compounds have mainly been used in flame retardants, but ethylene bromide is still an important compound because of its use to destroy nematodes and other pests in soils. Bromine is also used in the production of catalysts, such as aluminum bromide. Bromine has other uses, as in making various dyes and the compounds tetra bromoethane (C2H2Br4) and bromoform (CHBr3), which are used as liquids in gauges because of their high specific gravity. Until the development of barbiturates in the early 20th century, bromides of potassium, sodium, calcium, strontium, lithium, and ammonium were used widely in medicine because of their sedative action. Silver bromide (AgBr), an important component of photographic film, is, like silver chloride and iodide, light sensitive. Traces of potassium bromate (KBrO3) are

added to wheat flour to improve baking. Other bromine compounds of significance include hydrogen bromide (HBr), a colorless gas used as a reducing agent and a catalyst in organic reactions. A solution of the gas in water is called hydrobromic acid, a strong acid that resembles hydrochloric acid in its activity toward metals and their oxides and hydroxides.

Вам также может понравиться