Almost all the trihalides of titanium, zirconium and hafnium can be prepared by the high-temperature reduction of the corresponding tetrahalide with the metal.

Incomplete reaction and contamination of the product with excess metal often occurs.

[2][3] Zirconium(III) bromide has a lower magnetic moment than is expected for the d1 metal ion Zr3+, indicating non-negligible Zr-Zr bonding.

[1] The structure consists of parallel chains of face-sharing {ZrBr6} octahedra with equally spaced metal atoms.

[3] ZrCl3, ZrBr3 and ZrI3 all adopt the β-TiCl3 structure,[1] but the elongation of octahedra is most pronounced in the chloride, moderate in the bromide and negligible in the iodide.