Bromine
Bromine (Br) is a chemical element. Its atomic number (which is the number of protons in it) is 35, and its atomic weight is 80. It is part of the Group 7 elements (halogens) on the periodic table. It is diatomic, which means that two atoms are stuck together to make a molecule in any bromine sample.
Physical properties
Bromine is a red-brown liquid. Liquid elements are rare; only bromine and mercury are liquid at room temperature. It easily evaporates to make suffocating brown fumes. It has a bad smell. Its name means “stench of he-goats”. It can become a metal at very high pressures.
It has two stable isotopes. They are 79 Br and 81 Br. There are about 29 other radioactive isotopes.
Chemical properties
Bromine is quite reactive. Its reactivity is between chlorine, which is more reactive, and iodine, which is less reactive. It reacts with metals and nonmetals. Phosphorus reacts violently with bromine. Aluminum reacts in a similar way. It can bleach things like chlorine. It reacts better in the light. It dissolves a little in water. Hot water makes it disproportionate into hydrobromic acid and hypobromous acid. Bromine can form compounds with substances such as sodium to form sodium bromide.
Chemical compounds
Bromine forms compounds in many oxidation states: –1, +1, +3, +5, and (sometimes) +7. –1 is the most common. It is found as bromide. Bromides are not reactive. They are colorless solids that dissolve in water easily. Covalent bromides can be liquids or gases. The other compounds are all strong oxidizing agents. Their chlorine cousins are more common. +1 has the hypobromites, which are unstable. +3 has the bromites. Bromine dioxide is the only common bromine compound found in the +4 oxidation state. +5 has the bromates, which are more common than all the other ones except the bromides. Bromates are strong oxidizing agents and are sometimes added to flour. +7 has the perbromates. Perbromates are very unstable.
File:Sodium bromide.jpg|Sodium bromide File:Potassium bromide.jpg|Potassium bromide File:Bromičnan sodný.JPG|Sodium bromate
Occurrence
Bromine is found as bromide in the ocean and in brine pools. The Dead Sea has a lot of bromide in it. Bromine is not an important part of our body, unlike its relatives chlorine and iodine.
Preparation
Bromine is made by bubbling chlorine gas through a solution of a bromide. The bromide is oxidized to bromine, while the chlorine is reduced to chloride.
Uses
It is mainly used to make organobromine compounds, organic compounds with bromine in them. Organobromines are used to put out fires. They used to be added to gasoline. Some were used as pesticides. Some inorganic bromides were used as sedatives. Bromine can also be used as a disinfectant. Silver bromide is used in film.
Safety
Bromine is toxic and corrosive to skin. Bromine gas is irritating when it is breathed in, too. Bromine can react violently with many things.
Written for younger readers
Bromine, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: The Elements
NOTOC
Bromine is a volatile reddish-brown liquid. It is the only nonmetal element that is liquid at standard temperature and pressure. It easily evaporates to a reddish gas at room temperature. It has a sharp, pungent odor.
Carl Jacob Löwig prepared bromine from a mineral spring in his hometown of Bad Kreuznach, Germany. His discovery of bromine happened in1825, but his findings were not published until 1827.
Bromine was isolated by Antoine-Jérôme Balard in Montpellier, France in 1826. He had been analyzing seaweed ashes and salt marsh plants and found the new element. His findings were promptly published in 1826, before Löwig’s. So, he is considered the first person to discover bromine.
The name “bromine” comes from the word brôme, which derives from the Greek βρωμος (stench.)
Ballard first named the new element muride from the Latin muria (brine). He later changed the name to brôme the French word for bromine. (“Bromine” comes from the Greek bromos, which means “stench” or “bad smell.”) Did You Know?
- Bromine is an ingredient in the rare purple dye shellfish, or Tyrian, purple, the cost of which was what made the color purple synonymous with royalty.
- After fluorine, bromine is the most reactive element.
- Bromine is a reddish-brown liquid at room temperature and it the only liquid non-metal.
The pure element bromine does not occur naturally in nature. It exists only in bromide compounds (salts) in Earth’s crust and bromide ions (charged particles) in seawater.
Bromine compounds are forty-sixth in abundance in Earth’s crust and oceans. An example of a bromine compound is sodium bromide (NaBr) made from a positive sodium ion and a negative bromide ion. The resulting NaBr compound is called a “salt”.
The largest producers of bromine are the United States, China, and Israel. Elemental bromine is extracted from pools of extra salty water called “brine.” A special process converts the bromide ions in the brine into pure elemental bromine.
Silver bromide is a light-sensitive compound used in traditional film development. When light strikes silver bromide crystals on film, a “latent image” is created. That image is developed to become a visible image called a photograph. Making images this way is a classic process used by artists and hobbyists.
Elemental bromine is used in batteries, disinfectants, and chemical reactions. Bromine compounds are used in fire-control materials and in medicines. Bromine compounds are used for water treatment in pools and hot tubs. Such compounds are effective in both cold and warm water.
In the past, bromide compounds were used as fumigants. Farmers sprayed them on farm fields to kill pests like aphids, cutworms, and other damaging insects. The fumigants harmed the ozone layer and contaminated groundwater. Their use in agriculture declined because of these environmental problems.
Yes, it is toxic. Bromine should not make any contact with skin. When it contacts skin, bromine produces painful sores. Inhalation may lead to death. In the past, excessive use of bromide‑medicines caused a condition called “bromism”. Symptoms included confusion, fatigue, and skin rashes. Bromine fumes and salts are dangerous. They harm skin, eyes, lungs, and nerves. Inhalation may lead to death.
Scientists handle it only in a fume hood while wearing protective gloves, goggles, and lab coats. They keep it in sealed containers and keep neutralizing solutions nearby to manage any spills.
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Bromine” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
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