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Boron tribromide

 

 
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Boron tribromide
 
 
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Boron tribromide, BBr3, is a colorless, fuming liquid compound containing boron
Boron

Boron is a chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. Boron is a trivalent metalloid element which occurs abundantly in the evaporite ores borax and ulexite....
 and bromine
Bromine

Bromine , , meaning "stench " ), is a chemical element with the symbol Br and atomic number 35. A halogen element, bromine is a reddish-brown Volatility liquid at Standard conditions for temperature and pressure that is intermediate in reactivity between chlorine and iodine....
. It is usually made by heating boron trioxide
Boron trioxide

Boron oxide is one of the oxides of boron. It is white, glassy, and solid, also known as diboron trioxide, formula B2O3....
 with carbon
Carbon

Carbon is a chemical element with chemical symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalence?making four electrons available to form covalent bond chemical bonds....
 in the presence of bromine: this generates free boron which reacts vigorously with the bromine. It is very volatile and fumes in air because it reacts vigorously with water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 to form boric acid
Boric acid

Boric acid, also called boracic acid or orthoboric acid or Acidum Boricum, is a weak acid often used as an antiseptic, insecticide, flame retardant, in nuclear power plants to control the fission rate of uranium, and as a precursor of other chemical compounds....
 and hydrogen bromide
Hydrogen bromide

Hydrogen bromide is the diatomic molecule HydrogenBromine. Under standard conditions, HBr is a gas, but it can be liquified. The aqueous solution hydrobromic acid forms upon dissolving HBr in water....
.

Chemical properties
Boron tribromide is commercially available and is a strong Lewis acid
Lewis acid

A Lewis acid is a chemical compound, A, that can accept a pair of electrons from a Lewis base, B, that acts as an electron-pair donor, forming an adduct, AB.Gilbert N....
.






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Encyclopedia


Boron tribromide, BBr3, is a colorless, fuming liquid compound containing boron
Boron

Boron is a chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. Boron is a trivalent metalloid element which occurs abundantly in the evaporite ores borax and ulexite....
 and bromine
Bromine

Bromine , , meaning "stench " ), is a chemical element with the symbol Br and atomic number 35. A halogen element, bromine is a reddish-brown Volatility liquid at Standard conditions for temperature and pressure that is intermediate in reactivity between chlorine and iodine....
. It is usually made by heating boron trioxide
Boron trioxide

Boron oxide is one of the oxides of boron. It is white, glassy, and solid, also known as diboron trioxide, formula B2O3....
 with carbon
Carbon

Carbon is a chemical element with chemical symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalence?making four electrons available to form covalent bond chemical bonds....
 in the presence of bromine: this generates free boron which reacts vigorously with the bromine. It is very volatile and fumes in air because it reacts vigorously with water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 to form boric acid
Boric acid

Boric acid, also called boracic acid or orthoboric acid or Acidum Boricum, is a weak acid often used as an antiseptic, insecticide, flame retardant, in nuclear power plants to control the fission rate of uranium, and as a precursor of other chemical compounds....
 and hydrogen bromide
Hydrogen bromide

Hydrogen bromide is the diatomic molecule HydrogenBromine. Under standard conditions, HBr is a gas, but it can be liquified. The aqueous solution hydrobromic acid forms upon dissolving HBr in water....
.

Chemical properties


Boron tribromide is commercially available and is a strong Lewis acid
Lewis acid

A Lewis acid is a chemical compound, A, that can accept a pair of electrons from a Lewis base, B, that acts as an electron-pair donor, forming an adduct, AB.Gilbert N....
. It is an excellent demethylating or dealkylating agent for ether
Ether

Ether is a class of organic compounds which contain an ether functional group ? an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups ? of general formula R?O?R....
s, often in the production of pharmaceuticals
Medication

A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine or medicament, can be loosely defined as any substance intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease....
. Additionally, it also finds applications in olefin polymer
Polymer

A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. While polymer in popular usage suggests plastic, the term actually refers to a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a variety of properties....
ization and in Friedel-Crafts chemistry as a Lewis acid
Lewis acid

A Lewis acid is a chemical compound, A, that can accept a pair of electrons from a Lewis base, B, that acts as an electron-pair donor, forming an adduct, AB.Gilbert N....
 catalyst. The electronics industry uses boron tribromide as a boron source in pre-deposition processes for doping
Doping (semiconductor)

In semiconductor production, doping is the process of intentionally introducing impurities into an extremely pure semiconductor to change its electrical properties....
 in the manufacture of semiconductors.

Synthesis


The reaction of boron carbide
Boron carbide

Boron carbide is an extremely hard ceramic material used in tank armor, bulletproof vests, and numerous industrial applications. With a hardness of 9.3 on the mohs scale, it is the fifth hardest material known behind boron nitride, diamond, ultrahard fullerite, and aggregated diamond nanorods....
 with bromine
Bromine

Bromine , , meaning "stench " ), is a chemical element with the symbol Br and atomic number 35. A halogen element, bromine is a reddish-brown Volatility liquid at Standard conditions for temperature and pressure that is intermediate in reactivity between chlorine and iodine....
 at temperatures above 300 °C leads to the formation of boron tribromide. The product can be purified by vacuum distillation
Distillation

Distillation is a method of separation process mixtures based on differences in their Volatility in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
.

History

The first synthesis was done by M. Poggiale in 1846 by reacting boron trioxide with carbon and bromine at high temperatures:

B2O3 + 3 C + 3 Br2 ? 2 BBr3 + 3 CO


An improvement of this method was developed by F. Wöhler
Friedrich Wöhler

Friedrich W?hler was a Germany chemist, best-known for his synthesis of urea, but also the first to isolate several chemical elements....
 and Deville
Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville

Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville was a France chemist.He was born in the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, West Indies, where his father was French consul....
 in 1857. By starting from amorphous boron the reaction temperatures are lower and no carbon monoxide is produced:

2 B + 3 Br2 ? 2 BBr3


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