Bromine is a diatomic liquid which converts to a reddish brown vapor when subjected to standard temperatures and pressure. It was first discovered by Carlo Lowig in the year 1925 from seaweed ashes. The element is used in several industries such as the medical and food industry. This paper presents properties of bromine, discovery of bromine, and uses of bromine. It discusses future uses of bromine and ends with a recap of the study. Bromine is diatomic, reddish-brown, pungent, dense, mobile and liquid. Bromine is diatomic which means that it exists as a molecule consisting of two atoms bonded together through sharing of electrons (Ball, 2006). It is a dense element. This is because it has an atomic number of 35 and as a molecule it has a cumulative number of 70. Bromine has a reddish brown color. The element exists in form of a liquid. At room temperature and pressure, the liquid vaporizes and changes color to orange. Chlorine is one of the rare elements which exist in liquid form. The vapor has a bad smell which is described as a pungent smell. Bromine is an insulator. This means that it cannot conduct electricity. However, when compressed up to around half a million times the atmospheric pressure, bromine can conduct electric current. It achieves properties which resemble those of metals. Such properties include free electrons and easy flow within a given domain. Bromine also has chemical properties which relate to the manner it reacts with other elements and compounds. Bromine reacts with metals. The metals range from Sodium to Iron. The reaction is vigorous. This means that it occurs very fast and is sometimes explosive depending on the conditions available. In the presence of water, bromine reacts much faster. This is because water facilities forward reactions. The result of bromine reactions with metals is bromide salts. An example is Iron (II) Bromide which is formed when bromine reacts with iron. Bromine also reacts with organic compounds to form diatomic radicals (Bershteĭn & Egorov, 2004). The reactions are faster and more effective in the presence of light. Bromine bonds with a lot of elements and compounds. In the process it forms an excellent bleaching agent. A bleaching agent is a substance which has the capacity to separate color and dirt from a material. The action of bleaching is facilitated by the presence of water which provides free oxygen molecule to bromine to form a compound which then reacts with dyes and dirt to separate it from cloth. Bromine is partially soluble in water. This means that some element of bromine remains un-dissolved even if presented in small quantities. However, bromine is highly soluble in organic solvents.
Bromine has isotopes. The main isotopes are bromine 50.69 and 49.31 (Cotton, et. al., 1999). There are over 20 different isotopes of bromine which have a radio property. Many bromine isotopes react through splitting of atoms. The process is known as fission reaction. A few other bromine atoms react through binary fusion. Bromine isotopes are slow at releasing neutrons. They delay the duration before which neutrons are released and are used in nuclear reactors to control reaction processes. All of the bromine isotopes exist for a short time. Those that lack neutrons have a half-life which is around one and a half days. The neutron rich part of bromine lives for around 2.3 days. Bromine was discovered by two researchers in two successive years. The first person to discover it was Carlo J. Lowing in the year 1925. The second person to discover bromine was Antoine Balard in the year 1926 (Frankenbergeret, et al., 2006). Antoine Balard discovered bromine from remnants of sea plants which had been burnt. The ashes were a mixture of chlorine and bromine. However, the mixture seemed to be dominated by presence of more chlorine in unsaturated form. Balard separated chlorine from the mixture using distillation. He first thought that the element was iodine as the sea plant from which he had obtained it was used to produce iodine. He tested for iodine (I) Chloride but tested negative. It is at this point when Balard identified a new element called Bromine. Lowig used mineral water to obtain bromine. He extracted bromine from the mineral water using diethyl ether. The resulting component contained vapors which Lowig chose to call bromine. The first use was to create silver halide which was sensitive to light. It was used to a lesser extent for medicinal purposes. After sometime, more use was put into the medical field. Bromine was used for two main purposes which were to sedate patients and also address issues of convulsions. Potassium bromide was used to counter convulsions. Bromine was also used as a weapon in the First World War. In the form of xylyl halide, it acted as poison gas to kill war prisoners (Muller, 2013).
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Today, a lot of the bromine manufactured is used as a flame retardant. Bromine forms part of the material which prevents flames. The material containing bromine burns to form a bromine acid which prevents with the continuous oxygenation process of a fire. Highly reactive radicals, which propagate a fire, burn with hydrotropic acid to form less reactive radicals. Bromine atoms may also participate in a direct reaction with bromine atoms to end chain reactions caused by presence of free radicals. Flame retardants are manufactured by the addition of bromine monomers or highly brominated elements to a polymerization process. For instance vinyl bromide is added to a polymerization process to form polypropene. Bromine elements can also be added after a polymerization process. An example is when resins are used in the polymerization process. Other uses of bromine include medicine, pesticides, gasoline, food, and dyes. Bromine kills pests. An example is bromoethane which is applied on soil and houses in a process called tenting (Muller, 2013). Fumes are released which kill pests. Bromine as medicine acts as a sedative. A small amount of potassium bromide salt is also used to treat patients with convulsions. It is used to cure dogs which suffer from epilepsy. Bromine is used to synthesize citric drinks and is used to initiate the emulsification process. Bromine is also used as an anti-knocking agent in motor vehicles. It forms volatile substances which are quickly emitted from the engine. New uses of bromine in the future will mostly benefit the medical industry. Currently, research shows that bromine is essential for the proper functioning of proteins. The element is required to form a healthy cell lining. In the future bromine could be used to increase the permeability of human cells to allow people to utilize other medicines. Bromine will also play a key role in killing parasites living in biological systems.
Conclusion
Since the discovery of bromine, the medical industry, food industry, and clothing industry have undergone a revolution. Bromine has been incorporated into other compounds to form new compounds which have a wide range of chemical and physical properties. The future role of bromine use will be to improve the medical field as bromine has an essential role in functioning of proteins.
References
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Cotton, A. F., Wilkinson, G., Bochmann, M., & Murillo, C. A. (1999). Advanced inorganic chemistry . Wiley.
Frankenberger Jr, W. T., Tabatabai, M. A., Adriano, D. C., Doner, H. E., Sparks, D. L., Page, A.
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Müller, U. (2013). Inorganic structural chemistry (No. 04; QD151. 2, M8.). New York.
