Hydrogen halides physical properties

It is common practice to refer to the molecular species HX and also the pure (anhydrous) compounds as hydrogen halides, and to call their aqueous solutions hydrohalic acids. Both the anhydrous compounds and their aqueous solutions will be considered in this section. HCl and hydrochloric acid are major industrial chemicals and there is also a substantial production of HF and hydrofluoric acid. HBr and hydrobromic acid are made on a much smaller scale and there seems to be little industrial demand for HI and hydriodic acid. It will be convenient to discuss first the preparation and industrial uses of the compounds and then to consider their molecular and bulk physical properties. The chemical reactivity of the anhydrous compounds and their acidic aqueous solutions will then be reviewed, and the section concludes with a discussion of the anhydrous compounds as nonaqueous solvents. 

The other hydrogen halides are less tractable as solvents, as might be expected from their physical properties (p. 813), especially their low bps, short liquid ranges, low dielectric constants and negligible self-dissociation into ions. Nevertheless, they have received some attention, both for comparison with HF and as preparative media with their own special advantages.In particular, because of their low bp and consequent ease of removal, the liquid HX solvent systems have provided convenient routes to BX4, BF3C1 ,... 

Their physical properties are essentially those of the alkanes. It is the unsaturated linkages that dominate the chemistry and the main reaction is one of addition (e.g. hydrogen, halogen, and hydrogen halides) across the double bond to produce saturated compounds. This reactivity is utilized in the manufacture of long-chain polymers, e.g. polyethylene and polypropylene. 

There are two monohydrido complexes which have been prepared by the oxidative addition of hydrogen halides to [Rh P(OMe)3 5][BPh4] (equation 223). Two other monohydrido complexes having hydrogen-bonded anions have been prepared by simultaneous substitution of and oxidative addition to dinuclear rhodium(I) complexes (equation 224). The anions give resonances at very low fields in the H NMR spectra of the complexes.1050 The physical properties of the monohydrido complexes are listed in Table 77. 

The other hydrogen halides add oxidatively to rhodium(I) complexes of ditertiary phosphines or arsines giving rise to numerous monohydrido complexes, whose physical properties are also listed in Table 79. However, it is possible to prepare certain monohydrido complexes from rhodium(III) halides. One interesting reaction, carried out under an atmosphere of CO, gives rise to dicar-bonyldichlororhodate(I) salts (equation 241).226... 

Table 6 Physical properties of hydrogen halides in aqueous solution...

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