Bromine Water Test for Phenols

Bromine is a hazardous chemical that may cause serious chemical burns. Do not breathe its vapors or allow it to contact your skin. Perform all operations involving the transfer of solutions of bromine in a hood wear latex gloves when handling this chemical. If you get bromine on your skin, immediately flood the area with warm water and soak the skin in 0.6 Msodium thiosulfate solution for up to 3 h if the burn is particularly serious. 

Do nof use acetone to rinse glassware containing residual bromine. This prevents formation of a-bromoacetone, a severe lachrymator. Rather, follow the procedure described in Wrapping It Up. 

Preparation Sign in at www.cengage.com/login to read the MSDSs for the chemi- 

Prepare a 1% aqueous soiution of the unknown. If necessary, add dilute sodium hydroxide soiution dropwise to effect solution of the phenol. Add a saturated solution of bromine in water dropwise to this solution continue that addition until the bromine coior persists. Note how much bromine water is used and perform this experiment on phenoi and aniline for purposes of comparison. 

Add solid sodium thiosulfate to all test solutions to destroy residual bromine, then neutralize and filter them. Flush the filtrates down the drain and place the filter paper in the container for halogenated organic compounds. 

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