Structure and Characteristics of Inorganic Iodides
Iodide is one of the largest monoatomic anions. It is assigned a radius of around 206 picometers. For comparison, the lighter halides are considerably smaller: bromide (196 pm), chloride (181 pm), and fluoride (133 pm). In part because of its size, iodide forms relatively weak bonds with most elements.
Most iodide salts are soluble in water, but often less so than the related chlorides and bromides. Iodide, being large, is less hydrophilic than are the smaller anions. One consequence of this is that sodium iodide is highly soluble in acetone, whereas sodium chloride is not. The low solubility of silver iodide and lead iodide reflects the covalent character of these metal iodides. A test for the presence of iodide ions is the formation of yellow precipitates of these compounds upon treatment of a solution of silver nitrate or lead(II) nitrate.
Aqueous solutions of iodide salts dissolve iodine better than pure water. This effect is due to the formation of the triiodide ion, which is brown:
- Iā + I2 ā I3ā
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