Cleaned a whole load of chemistry-related stuff from the kitchen earlier in the day.
And just finished effecting a transfer of some elemental bromine from a two-necked flask, at the bottom of some bromine-water (in this case actually a saturated solution of sodium bromide, also containing some dissolved bromine, as Br2 does have a slight solubility in water). The Br2 was prepared by passing chlorine gas through a saturated solution of NaBr in H2O, and, just as a stronger base will displace a weaker base from its salts, such as NaOH displacing the ammonium cation to give ammonia from ammonium salts, the more electronegative halogen, in this case, chlorine, will displace less electronegative halogens from their salts.
Although the reaction does form some interhalogen side products too, which are extremely aggressive oxidizers, volatile and extremely toxic, although in some cases they can be hydrolyzed with relative ease in contact with water, whilst the halogens themselves aren't affected. Or in the case of BrCl, while unlike iodine monochloride, which hydrolyzes pretty easily, or iodine trichloride which is so unstable it actually has to be stored under an atmosphere of dry chlorine gas or it will disproportionate into iodine monochloride and Cl2 over time. Although not with extreme rapidity. Not sure how rapidly iodine trichloride hydrolyzes in water, I am having..issues, you might say, with getting a glassware setup apart after some ICl3 diffused into the ground glass joints and the fuckers are all seized up, so I HAVE some ICl3 that I made, but I can't actually GET to it, because my fucking glassware is stuck together, whilst the ICl3 is stabilized by virtue of the spent contents of the chlorine gas generator slowly off-gassing a little Cl2. Its annoying as hell, because there is a fair bit in there but I can't get to it, and I don't want to risk being rough with the glass, and accidentally break it, and worse, the reaction with the contents of the chlorine generator with the large plug of crystalline iodine trichloride, which is actually very attractive in appearance, being neatly shaped crystals of a great looking golden-orange colour, could potentially be very violent and give off a great deal of virulently toxic fumes.
BrCl doesn't hydrolyze very quickly at all from what I've read, but it is gaseous at room temperature, having a boiling point of around 8 'C, so normally its a golden-browny yellow (and HIGHLY toxic) gas and shouldn't hang around too easily.
