Where can bromine be found?
In nature bromine can be found as bromide salts or organic bromine substances. These substances are produced by several sea organisms. Bromine is mostly in soluble salts in seawater, salt lakes and brine. Seawater contains approximately 65 ppm bromine. The bromine concentration found in brine is much higher, between 2500 and 10,000 ppm. Bromine is obtained from brine sources in the United States of America and China, from the Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan and from oceanic water from Wales and Japan. Other bromine-rich areas are in France, Italy, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Azerbeidzjan and Germany. Bromine can also be found in rocks and in the earth’s crust. Figure 1: bromine exists mostly as bromide salts in the sea How can bromine be produced? Bromine was first discovered in 1825, but it was not until 1860 that it was produced on a larger scale. In the old days bromine was produced by obtaining a reaction between bromides, pyrolusite and sulphuric acid. MnO2 + 4 H+ + 2 Br- → Mn2+ + 2 H2O
