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]
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]
Like ClF3 and IF3, the BrF3molecule is T-shaped and planar. In the VSEPR formalism, the bromine center is assigned two electron lone pairs. The distance from the bromine atom to each axial fluorine atom is 1.81 Å and to the equatorial fluorine atom is 1.72 Å. The angle between an axial fluorine atom and the equatorial fluorine atom 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]