Tantalum bromide is the inorganic compound

Inorganic compound

Inorganic compounds have traditionally been considered to be of inanimate, non-biological origin. In contrast, organic compounds have an explicit biological origin. However, over the past century, the classification of inorganic vs organic compounds has become less important to scientists,...

 with the formula Ta₂Br₁₀. It is a diamagnetic yellow solid that hydrolyses readily. The compound adopts an edge-shared bioctahedral structure, which means that two square pyramidal TaBr₅ subunits are joined by a pair of bridging bromide ligands

Bridging ligand

A bridging ligand is a ligand that connects two or more atoms, usually metal ions. The ligand may be atomic or polyatomic. Virtually all complex organic compounds can serve as bridging ligands, so the term is usually restricted to small ligands such as pseudohalides or to ligands that are...

. The pentachlorides and pentaiodides of Nb and Ta share this structural motif.

Preparation and handling

The material is usually prepared by the reaction of bromine with tantalum metal (or tantalum carbide

Tantalum carbide

Tantalum carbides form a family of binary chemical compounds of tantalum and carbon with the empirical formula TaCx, where x usually varies between 0.4 and 1. They are extremely hard, brittle, refractory ceramic materials with metallic electrical conductivity. They appear as brown-gray powders...

) at elevated temperatures in a tube furnace

Tube furnace

A tube furnace is an electric heating device used to conduct syntheses and purifications of inorganic compounds and occasionally in organic synthesis. The usual design consists of a cylindrical cavity surrounded by heating coils, which are embedded in a thermally insulating matrix. Temperature is...

. The bromides of the early metals are sometimes preferred to the chlorides because of the relative ease of handling liquid 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...

 vs gaseous chlorine

Chlorine

Chlorine is the chemical element with atomic number 17 and symbol Cl. It is the second lightest halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17. The element forms diatomic molecules under standard conditions, called dichlorine...

. Like other molecular halides, it is soluble in nonpolar solvents such as carbon tetrachloride

Carbon tetrachloride

Carbon tetrachloride, also known by many other names is the organic compound with the formula CCl4. It was formerly widely used in fire extinguishers, as a precursor to refrigerants, and as a cleaning agent...

(1.465 g/100 mL at 30° C), but it reacts with many other solvents.