Relative reactivity

The great reactivity of fluorine largely stems from the relatively low dissociation energy, a standard measure for bond energies, of the F―F bond (37.7 kilocalories per mole) and its ability to form stable strong bonds with essentially all the other elements.

Fluorine (F₂) and chlorine (Cl₂) are gases at room temperature. Bromine (Br₂) is a reddish-brown liquid at room temperature and is—apart from mercury—the only element that is liquid at 20 °C (68 °F) and atmospheric pressure. Iodine (I₂) forms dark violet crystals under these conditions. In the solid state the halogen elements form molecular lattices, and the sublimation energies rise with increasing size of the molecules.

The energy released in the formation of an ion from a free atom and an electron (brought up from an infinite distance) is called the electron affinity. The electron affinities for the halogen atoms all are high and show only slight differences from one another. It is known, however, that the oxidizing properties (ability to take up an electron by formation of a bond with another atom) increase from astatine to fluorine. This increase can be attributed to the low dissociation energy and the high electron affinity of fluorine combined with the strength of the resulting fluorine-hetero atom bond, resulting in a large heat of reaction. While the fluoride ion exhibits no reducing properties, the iodide ion is a mild reducing agent.

Within a molecule in which atoms are held together by a shared electron pair (i.e., by a covalent or nonionic bond), the tendency of an atom to attract the shared electrons may be expressed by an electronegativity value. According to American chemist Linus Pauling, “Electronegativity is the power of an atom in a molecule to attract electrons to itself.” Fluorine possesses the highest electronegativity of all elements, and there is a decrease in electronegativity within the family of the halogen elements from fluorine through chlorine, bromine, and iodine to astatine.

Fluorine replaces any other halide ion from its compounds, as shown in the following equations. Chlorine, however, replaces only bromide, iodide, and astatide ions, and bromine only iodide and astatide ions. Free fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine are expected to replace astatide ions. The halogen elements all form compounds with hydrogen, the hydrogen halides. The energy of the hydrogen-halogen bond increases strongly from iodide to fluoride. Hydrogen fluoride in the crystalline state consists of infinite zigzag chains, as shown in the diagram, in which H represents the hydrogen atoms and (as before) F the fluorine atoms; the solid lines represent covalent bonds between the hydrogen and fluorine atoms within the molecules, and the dotted lines represent secondary bonds, called hydrogen bonds. The hydrogen bonds between hydrogen fluoride molecules are considerably weaker (7 kilocalories per mole) than those within the molecules (135 kilocalories per mole), yet they are retained to a great extent in the liquid state. Similar hydrogen bonding exists in the other hydrogen halides, but it is considerably weaker. The large difference in hydrogen bonding between hydrogen fluoride and the other hydrogen halides accounts for the relatively high melting and boiling points of hydrogen fluoride as compared with those of hydrogen chloride and the other hydrogen halides. The hydrogen-halogen bond energies also decrease considerably in going from hydrogen fluoride to hydrogen iodide.

The ionization energies of the halogens are generally high, but they fall markedly with increasing atomic number. Fluorine is the only halogen that does not form compounds with positive oxidation states—i.e., states in which it has lost, rather than gained, electrons. This property is related to fluorine’s having the highest electronegativity of all elements; i.e., it does not give up its electrons to other elements.

All halogens possess the oxidation state 0 in their diatomic forms. Fluorine exhibits the oxidation states of −1 (F⁻ ion) and +1 (hypofluorous acid). The principal oxidation states of chlorine, bromine, and iodine are −1, +1, +3, +5, and +7. The oxyacids are compounds in which halogen atoms are joined to oxygen atoms. The oxyacids are all powerful oxidizing agents, which can be reduced to the corresponding hydrogen halides—the oxidation numbers changing from positive to −1 in the process. The oxidizing strength of the oxyanions increases with increasing oxidation number of the halogen atom.

All the molecules and ions in which halogen atoms possess four valence electron pairs are tetrahedral, as, for example, in the perchlorate ion (ClO₄)⁻. Those employing five valence electron pairs, such as chlorine trifluoride (ClF₃), have structures derived from a trigonal bipyramidal arrangement of electron pairs. However, since electron lone pairs (i.e., electron pairs that do not bond atoms together) are not located by techniques that analyze structure, only the positions of the fluorine atoms (attached to bonding pairs) are seen. Thus, ClF₃ has a T shape resulting from the placement of fluorine atoms at both axial and at one equatorial position of the trigonal bipyramid, with lone electron pairs in the remaining two equatorial positions. Molecules with six valence electron pairs have structures derived from octahedral geometry for the electron pairs; e.g., iodine pentafluoride (IF₅) has a square pyramidal structure resulting from the bonding of fluorine atoms by five of the six octahedral electron pairs. The unique binary compound iodine heptafluoride (IF₇) has a pentagonal bipyramidal arrangement of fluorine atoms.

The highest observed coordination number (the number of atoms that a central atom has as its neighbours in a compound) of chlorine (oxidation state of +7) toward oxygen is 4 (i.e., the chlorine atom is surrounded by four oxygen atoms), as found in the perchlorate ion, (ClO₄)⁻, whereas that of iodine (+7) is 6, as in the paraperiodate ion, (IO₆)⁵⁻. Toward fluorine, the maximum coordination numbers are higher. For example, chlorine can coordinate to six fluorine atoms, as in (ClF₆)⁺, and iodine (+7) to eight fluorine atoms, as in (IF₈)⁻.

The principal properties of the halogen elements are noted in the table.