Where is bromine mined

There is no known biological use for bromine in humans, although it is believed to be an essential trace element for red algae and some mollusks. It does function as a nerve sedative. Bromine is recovered from seawater and sea salts in small quantities. The silk burial shroud of Charlemagne — the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, who was buried in Germany in and repeatedly exhumed and reburied — remains a vibrant purple today.

Bromine, along with mercury, is one of only two elements that are liquid at room temperature. Bromine is a highly volatile and corrosive reddish-brown liquid that evaporates easily and converts to a metal at extreme pressures — above about , times atmospheric pressure.

Bromine occurs in seawater, evaporitic salt lakes and underground brines associated with petroleum deposits. Brominated flame retardants are commonly added to many domestic and industrial appliances; plastic casings for electronic equipment, such as computers, mobile telephones and televisions; and other items, such as foam furniture padding, insulation boards, mattresses and textiles.

About 90 percent of all electrical components contain brominated flame retardants. Worldwide production estimated to be around , tons per year. Bromine is very harmful to the atmosphere. According to Chemicool , bromine atoms are 40 to times more destructive in the ozone layer than chlorine atoms. Up to half of the loss of ozone above Antarctica is due to reactions involving bromine. Methyl bromide, used as a fumigant, is the largest source of ozone-depleting bromine.

Two scientists working independently discovered bromine in the s, according to Peter van der Krogt , a Dutch historian. Gmelin advised that his student produce more of the substance so that it could be studied in further detail. Balard took a sample of the brine in which the seaweed was found and distilled the mixture of brine with chlorine to produce a dark red liquid, according to Chemicool.

Bromine compounds can be used as flame retardants. They are added to furniture foam, plastic casings for electronics and textiles to make them less flammable. However, the use of bromine as a flame retardant has been phased out in the USA because of toxicity concerns.

Organobromides are used in halon fire extinguishers that are used to fight fires in places like museums, aeroplanes and tanks. Silver bromide is a chemical used in film photography. Before leaded fuels were phased out, bromine was used to prepare 1,2-di-bromoethane, which was an anti-knock agent.

Biological role. Bromine is present in small amounts, as bromide, in all living things. However, it has no known biological role in humans. Bromine has an irritating effect on the eyes and throat, and produces painful sores when in contact with the skin.

Natural abundance. Bromine is extracted by electrolysis from natural bromine-rich brine deposits in the USA, Israel and China. It was the first element to be extracted from seawater, but this is now only economically viable at the Dead Sea, Israel, which is particularly rich in bromide up to 0.

Help text not available for this section currently. Elements and Periodic Table History. He took the concentrated residue which remained after most of the brine had evaporated and passed chlorine gas into it. In so doing he liberated an orange-red liquid which he deduced was a new element. He was asked to produce more of it, and while he was doing so Balard published his results and so became known at its discoverer. Atomic data. Bond enthalpies. Glossary Common oxidation states The oxidation state of an atom is a measure of the degree of oxidation of an atom.

Oxidation states and isotopes. Glossary Data for this section been provided by the British Geological Survey. Relative supply risk An integrated supply risk index from 1 very low risk to 10 very high risk. Recycling rate The percentage of a commodity which is recycled.

Substitutability The availability of suitable substitutes for a given commodity. Reserve distribution The percentage of the world reserves located in the country with the largest reserves.

Political stability of top producer A percentile rank for the political stability of the top producing country, derived from World Bank governance indicators. Political stability of top reserve holder A percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators. Supply risk. Relative supply risk 7 Crustal abundance ppm 0.

Young's modulus A measure of the stiffness of a substance. Shear modulus A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material. Bulk modulus A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. Vapour pressure A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate. Pressure and temperature data — advanced.

Listen to Bromine Podcast Transcript :. You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World , the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Hello, welcome to Chemistry in its element where this week we're sniffing out the chemical that is named after the Greek word for stench and this substance has certainly kicked up a stink in its own right in its time because it makes holes in the ozone layer.

But it's not all bad as it's also given us drugs, insecticides and fire extinguishers and to tell the story of element number 35, here's chemist and author John Emsley. Fifty years ago bromine was produced on a massive scale and turned into lots of useful compounds. Photography relied on the light-sensitivity of silver bromide, doctors prescribed potassium bromide as a tranquiliser, leaded petrol needed dibromomethane to ensure the lead was removed via the exhaust gases, bromomethane was widely used to fumigate soil and storage facilities, and fire extinguishers contained volatile organobromine compounds.

Today these uses have all but disappeared. World production of liquid bromine once exceeded , tonnes per year, of which a significant part was produced by a plant on the coast of Anglesey in Wales, which closed in This extracted the element from sea water, which contains 65 p.

He found that the salt residues left by evaporating brine from Montpellier, France, gave an oily red liquid when treated with acid. He realised this was a new element and reported it to the French Academy, who confirmed his discovery. When they realised it was chemically similar to chlorine and iodine they proposed the name bromine, based on the Greek word bromos meaning stench. While some uses of bromine have declined because the products made from it are no longer needed, others have been discouraged because of the damage this element could cause to the ozone layer.

Volatile organobromine compounds are capable of surviving in the atmosphere long enough to reach the upper ozone layer where their bromine atoms are 50 times more damaging than the chlorine atoms - which are the main threat, coming as they did from the widely used chlorofluorocarbons, the CFCs.

The Montreal Protocol which outlawed the CFCs sought also to ban the use of all volatile organobromines by , and this restriction especially applied to the fumigant bromomethane and compounds such as CBrClF 2 which were in fire extinguishers for electrical fires or those in confined spaces.

Bromomethane was a particular cause for concern but banning it has proved impossible because it has some uses for which alternatives have not been found.

Often referred to as methyl bromide, CH 3 Br boiling point 3. In the soil it kills nematodes, insects, bacteria, mites and fungi which threaten crops such as seed crops, lettuce, strawberries, grapes, and flowers such as carnations and chrysanthemums. In fact bromomethane is not quite so threatening as it first appears.

Environmental research uncovered the unexpected result that half the bromomethane sprayed on soil never evaporates into the air because it is consumed by bacteria. Nor are man-made organobromines the main source of these compounds in the atmosphere.

Marine plankton and algae release around half a million tonnes of various bromomethanes a year and in particularly tribromomethane aka bromoform, CHBr 3.