Sodium hypobromite is the
inorganic compound with the formula NaBrO. It is usually obtained as the
pentahydrate, so the material that is usually called sodium hypobromite has the formula NaOBr • 5H
2O. It is a yellow-orange solid that is soluble in water. It adopts a
monoclinic
In crystallography, the monoclinic crystal system is one of the seven crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in the orthorhombic s ...
crystal structure with a Br–O bond length of 1.820 Å.
It is the
Na+ salt of
OBr−. It is the bromine analogue of
sodium hypochlorite
Sodium hypochlorite (commonly known in a dilute solution as bleach) is an inorganic chemical compound with the formula NaOCl (or NaClO), comprising a sodium cation () and a hypochlorite anion (or ). It may also be viewed as the sodium s ...
, the active ingredient in common
bleach. In practice the salt is usually encountered as an aqueous solution.
Sodium hypobromite arises by treatment of aqueous solution of bromine with base:
:Br
2 + 2NaOH → NaBr + NaBrO + H
2O
It can be prepared ''in situ'' for use as a
reagent, such as in the synthesis of
3-aminopyridine from
nicotinamide
Niacinamide or Nicotinamide (NAM) is a form of vitamin B3 found in food and used as a dietary supplement and medication. As a supplement, it is used by mouth to prevent and treat pellagra (niacin deficiency). While nicotinic acid (niacin) may ...
(
Hofmann rearrangement
The Hofmann rearrangement (Hofmann degradation) is the organic reaction of a primary amide to a primary amine with one fewer carbon atom. The reaction involves oxidation of the nitrogen followed by rearrangement of the carbonyl and nitrogen to gi ...
).
:
References
{{Sodium compounds
Hypobromites
Sodium compounds