KINETICS OF OXIDATIONS BY HYPOBROMOUS ACID

In aqueous solution hypobromous acid is in equilibrium with molecular bromine, viz. 

The equilibrium constant for reaction (1) is 9.6 x 10 at 25 °C (Pink ). Thus the proportion of bromine present as hypobromous acid is very small in solutions of pH 6. Hypobromous acid is a weak acid, having a pKj of 8.66 at 25 °C (Flis et u/. ). On account of the equilibrium (1), reactions of hypobromous acid are frequently accompanied by reactions of molecular bromine, and the contribution of any reaction due to the acid has to be determined from the effects of changing the pH and the addition or removal of bromide ions. Perlmutter-Hay-man et have shown that with the majority of organic substrates, oxida- 

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