Bromous acid
chemical compound
Bromous acid is the inorganic compound with the formula of HBrO2. It is an unstable compound, although salts of its conjugate base – bromites – have been isolated. In acidic solution, bromites decompose to bromine.
Discovery
In 1905, Richards A. H. proved the existence of bromous acid through a series of experiments involving silver nitrate (AgNO3) and bromine. The reaction of excess cold aqueous to form hypobromous acid (HBrO), silver bromide (AgBr) and nitric acid (HNO3):
Br2 + AgNO3 + H2O → HBrO + AgBr + HNO3
Richards discovered that the effect of adding excess liquid bromine in a concentrated silver nitrate (AgNO3) resulted in a different reaction mechanism. From numbers of equivalent portions of acid bromine formed from the previous reaction, the ratio between oxygen and bromine was calculated, with the exact value of O:Br (0.149975:0.3745), suggesting the acid compound contains two oxygen atom to one bromine atom. Thus, the chemical structure of the acid compound was deducted as HBrO2.
According to Richards, hypobromous acid (HBrO) arises by the reaction of bromine and silver nitrate solution:
Br2 + AgNO3 + H2O → HBrO + AgBr + HNO3
2 AgNO3 + HBrO + Br2 + H2O → HBrO2 + 2 AgBr + 2 HNO3
Isomerism
The molecule HBrO2 has a bent structure with ∠(H−O−Br) angles of 106.1°. HOBrO also adopts a non-planar conformation with one isomer structure (2a) adopting a dihedral angle ∠(H−O−Br−O) of 74.2°. Moreover, the planar structures of two other isomers (2b-cis and 2c-trans) are transition state for fast enantiomerization.
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