For example, one millilitre of methylene iodide weighs 3.325 g. Few organoiodine compounds are important industrially, at least in terms of large scale production.
Iodide-containing intermediates are common in organic synthesis on the laboratory scale because of the easy formation and cleavage of the C–I bond.
Iodinated and brominated organic compounds are of concern as environmental contaminants owing to very limited information available on environment fate behavior.
For example, Iodotyrosine deiodinase is a mammalian enzyme with the unusual function of aerobic reductive dehalogenation of iodine- or bromine-substituted organic substrates.
[6] Bromoxynil and ioxynil herbicides have been shown to undergo a variety of environmental transformations, including reductive dehalogenation by anaerobic bacteria.
[11] Marine natural products are rich sources of organoiodine compounds, like the recently discovered plakohypaphorines from the sponge Plakortis simplex.
The sum of iodomethane produced by the marine environment, microbial activity in rice paddies, and the burning of biological material is estimated to be 214 kilotonnes per year.
[13] Organoiodine compounds are prepared by numerous routes, depending on the degree and regiochemistry of iodination sought as well as the nature of the precursors.
The iodide anion is a good nucleophile and will displace chloride, tosylate, bromide and other leaving groups, as in the Finkelstein reaction.