Hydrogen bromide is the inorganic compound with the formula HBr. It is a hydrogen halide consisting of hydrogen and bromine. A colorless gas, it dissolves in water, forming hydrobromic acid, which is saturated at 68.85% HBr by weight at room temperature. Aqueous solutions that are 47.6% HBr by mass form a constant-boiling azeotrope mixture that boils at 124.3 °C (255.7 °F). Boiling less concentrated solutions releases H2O until the constant-boiling mixture composition is reached.
Hydrogen bromide, and its aqueous solution, hydrobromic acid, are commonly used reagents in the preparation of bromide compounds.
Hydrogen bromide (along with hydrobromic acid) is produced by combining hydrogen and bromine at temperatures between 200 and 400 °C. The reaction is typically catalyzed by platinum or asbestos.[9][13]
Anhydrous hydrogen bromide can also be produced on a small scale by thermolysis of triphenylphosphonium bromide in refluxing xylene.[11]
Hydrogen bromide prepared by the above methods can be contaminated with Br2, which can be removed by passing the gas through a solution of phenol at room temperature in tetrachloromethane or other suitable solvent (producing 2,4,6-tribromophenol and generating more HBr in the process) or through copper turnings or copper gauze at high temperature.[13]
Safety
HBr is highly corrosive and, if inhaled, can cause lung damage.[15]
References
^Favre, Henri A.; Powell, Warren H., eds. (2014). Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry: IUPAC Recommendations and Preferred Names 2013. Cambridge: The Royal Society of Chemistry. p. 131. ISBN9781849733069.
^ abcGreenwood, N. N.; Earnshaw, A. Chemistry of the Elements; Butterworth-Heineman: Oxford, Great Britain; 1997; pp. 809–812.
^Vollhardt, K. P. C.; Schore, N. E. Organic Chemistry: Structure and Function; 4th Ed.; W. H. Freeman and Company: New York, NY; 2003.
^ abHercouet, A.; LeCorre, M. (1988) Triphenylphosphonium bromide: A convenient and quantitative source of gaseous hydrogen bromide. Synthesis, 157–158.
^Calderazzo, Fausto; Maichle-Mössmer, Cäcilie; Pampaloni, Guido; Strähle, Joachim (1993). "Low-Temperature Syntheses of Vanadium(III) and Molybdenum(IV) Bromides by Halide Exchange". J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans. (5): 655–658. doi:10.1039/DT9930000655.
^ abRuhoff, J. R.; Burnett, R. E.; Reid, E. E. "Hydrogen Bromide (Anhydrous)" Organic Syntheses, Vol. 15, p. 35 (Coll. Vol. 2, p. 338).
^ abcM. Schmeisser "Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine" in Handbook of Preparative Inorganic Chemistry, 2nd Ed. Edited by G. Brauer, Academic Press, 1963, NY. Vol. 1. p. 282.