Bromic acid, also known as hydrogen bromate, is an oxoacid

Oxoacid

An oxoacid is an acid that contains oxygen. To be more specific, it is an acid that:#contains oxygen#contains at least one other element#has at least one hydrogen atom bound to oxygen#forms an ion by the loss of one or more protons....

 that only exists in aqueous solution

Aqueous solution

An aqueous solution is a solution in which the solvent is water. It is usually shown in chemical equations by appending aq to the relevant formula, such as NaCl. The word aqueous means pertaining to, related to, similar to, or dissolved in water...

. It is a colorless solution that turns yellow at room temperature as it decomposes to bromine

Bromine

Bromine ") is a chemical element with the symbol Br, an atomic number of 35, and an atomic mass of 79.904. It is in the halogen element group. The element was isolated independently by two chemists, Carl Jacob Löwig and Antoine Jerome Balard, in 1825–1826...

. Bromic acid and bromate

Bromate

The bromate anion, BrO, is a bromine-based oxoanion. A bromate is a chemical compound that contains this ion. Examples of bromates include sodium bromate, , and potassium bromate, .Bromates are formed many different ways in municipal drinking water...

s are powerful oxidizing agents and are common ingredients in Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction

Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction

A Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction, or BZ reaction, is one of a class of reactions that serve as a classical example of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, resulting in the establishment of a nonlinear chemical oscillator. The only common element in these oscillating systems is the inclusion of bromine...

s. Belousov-Zhabotinsky reactions are a classic example of non-equilibrium thermodynamics

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a branch of thermodynamics that deals with systems that are not in thermodynamic equilibrium. Most systems found in nature are not in thermodynamic equilibrium; for they are changing or can be triggered to change over time, and are continuously and discontinuously...

.

Dissociation

Low concentrations dissociate completely to hydrogen and bromate while high concentrations decompose to form bromine. Bromic acid's high instability can be explained because the electoposively charged hypervalent hydrogen is connected to the electropositive hydrogen.

Structure

There are several isomers of HBrO₃. The calculated bond lengths are listed below based on three high level theories G2MP2, CCSD(T), and QCISD(T).

Species	HOOOBr	HOOBrO	HOBrO2	HBrO3
Br-O bridged (Å)	1.867	1.919	1.844	-----
Br-O terminal (Å)	-----	1.635	1.598	1.586

The large energy barriers between these structures do not make isomerization possible. HOBrO₂ is the most stable isomer and is the one pictured above.

Synthesis

Bromic acid is the product of a reaction of barium bromate and sulfuric acid.

+ → +

Barium sulfate is insoluble in water and forms a precipitate. The aqueous bromic acid can be decanted removing the barium sulfate.