Bromine_trifluoride

Bromine trifluoride

Bromine trifluoride

Chemical compound

Bromine trifluoride is an interhalogen compound with the formula BrF3. At room temperature, it is a straw-coloured liquid with a pungent odor[5] which decomposes violently on contact with water and organic compounds. It is a powerful fluorinating agent and an ionizing inorganic solvent. It is used to produce uranium hexafluoride (UF6) in the processing and reprocessing of nuclear fuel.[6]

Quick Facts Identifiers, Properties ...

Synthesis

Bromine trifluoride was first described by Paul Lebeau in 1906, who obtained the material by the reaction of bromine with fluorine at 20 °C:[7]

Br2 + 3 F2 → 2 BrF3

The disproportionation of bromine monofluoride also gives bromine trifluoride:[5]

3 BrF → BrF3 + Br2

Structure

Like ClF3 and IF3, the BrF3 molecule is T-shaped and planar. In the VSEPR formalism, the bromine center is assigned two electron pairs. The distance from the bromine each axial fluorine is 1.81 Å and to the equatorial fluorine is 1.72 Å. The angle between an axial fluorine and the equatorial fluorine is slightly smaller than 90° — the 86.2° angle observed is due to the repulsion generated by the electron pairs being greater than that of the Br-F bonds.[8][9]

Chemical properties

In a highly exothermic reaction, BrF3 reacts with water to form hydrobromic acid and hydrofluoric acid:

BrF3 + 2 H2O → 3 HF + HBr + O2

BrF3 is a fluorinating agent, but less reactive than ClF3.[10] Already at -196 °C, it reacts with acetonitrile to give 1,1,1-trifluoroethane.[11]

BrF3 + CH3CN → CH3CF3 + 1⁄2 Br2 + 1⁄2 N2

The liquid is conducting, owing to autoionisation:[6]

2 BrF3 ⇌ BrF+2 + BrF−4

Fluoride salts dissolve readily in BrF3 forming tetrafluorobromate:[6]

KF + BrF3 → KBrF4

It reacts as a fluoride donor:[12]

BrF3 + SbF5 → [BrF+2][SbF−6]

References

  1. [1]
    "Safety Data Sheet : Bromine Trifluoride" (PDF). Chammascutters.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  2. [2]
    Lide, David R., ed. (2006). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (87th ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. ISBN 0-8493-0487-3.
  3. [3]
    "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-05-13. Retrieved 2012-11-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. [4]
    "Safety Data Sheet Bromine Trifluoride" (PDF). Airgas. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  5. [5]
    Simons JH (1950). "Bromine(III) Fluoride (Bromine Trifluoride)". Bromine (III) Fluoride - Bromine Trifluoride. Inorganic Syntheses. Vol. 3. pp. 184–186. doi:10.1002/9780470132340.ch48. ISBN 978-0-470-13234-0.
  6. [6]
    Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-08-037941-8.
  7. [7]
    Lebeau P. (1906). "The effect of fluorine on chloride and on bromine". Annales de Chimie et de Physique. 9: 241–263.
  8. [8]
    Gutmann V (1950). "Die Chemie in Bromitrifluorid". Angewandte Chemie. 62 (13–14): 312–315. Bibcode:1950AngCh..62..312G. doi:10.1002/ange.19500621305.
  9. [9]
    Meinert H (1967). "Interhalogenverbindungen". Zeitschrift für Chemie. 7 (2): 41–57. doi:10.1002/zfch.19670070202.
  10. [10]
    Rozen, Shlomo; Sasson, Revital (2007). "Bromine Trifluoride". Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis. doi:10.1002/9780470842898.rb266.pub2. ISBN 978-0471936237.
  11. [11]
    Rozen, Shlomo (2010). "Selective Reactions of Bromine Trifluoride in Organic Chemistry". Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis. 352 (16): 2691–2707. doi:10.1002/adsc.201000482.
  12. [12]
    A. J. Edwards and G. R. Jones. J. Chem. Soc. A, 1467 (1969)
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Bromine_trifluoride, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.