Bromine with halides

Adding aqueous bromine to aqueous solutions containing chloride, bromide, and iodide ions

Which do you think will react this time?




Thanks to Mike Thompson who allowed us to embed this video from his ChemPics collection
Mike recorded this in a classroom situation, and you will hear the students talking in the background.

Despite the colour of all of the solutions in the test tubes changing, only one of the halides reacted. The colour change for two of the halides is due to addition of the highly coloured solution of bromine to a colourless solution.  No reaction occurs!.