Bromine dioxide Bromine dioxide Bromine dioxide is the chemical compound composed of bromine and oxygen with the formula BrO. It forms unstable yellow to yellow-orange crystals. It was first isolated by R. Schwarz and M. Schmeißer in 1937 and is hypothesized to be important in the atmospheric reaction of bromine with ozone. It is similar to chlorine dioxide, the dioxide of its halogen neighbor one period higher on the periodic table. Bromine dioxide is formed when an electric current is passed through a mixture of bromine and oxygen gases at low temperature and pressure. Bromine dioxide can also be formed by the
Chlorine three times as effective against "Escherichia coli" as bromine, and more than six times as effective as iodine. It is often impractical to store and use poisonous chlorine gas for water treatment, so alternative methods of adding chlorine are used. These include hypochlorite solutions, which gradually release chlorine into the water, and compounds like sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione (dihydrate or anhydrous), sometimes referred to as "dichlor", and trichloro-s-triazinetrione, sometimes referred to as "trichlor". These compounds are stable while solid and may be used in powdered, granular, or tablet form. When added in small amounts to pool water or industrial water systems, the