Bromine in daguerreotypy. Potassium bromide and sodium bromide were used as anticonvulsants and sedatives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but were gradually superseded by chloral hydrate and then by the barbiturates. In the early years of the First World War, bromine compounds such as xylyl bromide were used as poison gas. Bromine is the third halogen, being a nonmetal in group 17 of the periodic table. Its properties are thus similar to those of fluorine, chlorine, and iodine, and tend to be intermediate between those of the two neighbouring halogens, chlorine and iodine. Bromine has the electron configuration
Chlorine trifluoride acid is corrosive to human tissue, is absorbed through skin, selectively attacks bone, interferes with nerve function, and causes often-fatal fluorine poisoning. Although hydrochloric acid is much less toxic to humans, it is often more corrosive than hydrofluoric acid. Chlorine trifluoride Chlorine trifluoride is an interhalogen compound with the formula ClF. This colorless, poisonous, corrosive, and extremely reactive gas condenses to a pale-greenish yellow liquid, the form in which it is most often sold (pressurized at room temperature). The compound is primarily of interest as a component in rocket fuels, in plasmaless cleaning and etching operations in the semiconductor industry,