Compounds with Fluorine and Chlorine (Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry - 8th edition)

The volume describes all compounds that consist of bromine and fluorine and/or chlorine and may additionally contain noble gases, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The description of chemical and physical properties of binary compounds between bromine and fluorine takes up most of the volume, because this class of compounds includes BrF3 and BrF5 which have considerable technical interest. Especially the the oxidizing and fluorinating properties of BrF3 make it a convenient reactant for the preparation of inorganic fluorides. On the other hand, the diatomic molecule BrF is well-characterized by spectroscopic methods, but its chemistry is less known because of its instability. Other neutral species, such as Br2F, Br2F2, BrF2, and BrF6, only exist in matrices at low temperatures, and the existence of BrF4 and BrF7 is even doubted. Some of the ions, including BrF2+, BrF2-, Br3F10-, BrF4+, BrF4-, BrF6+, and BrF6-, can be stabilized as salts.