Iodine monochloride is an interhalogen compound with the formula ICl. It is a red-brown chemical compound that melts near room temperature. Because of the difference in the electronegativity of iodine and chlorine, ICl is highly polar and behaves as a source of I+. Owing to the similarity of the properties of the compound with bromine (red-brown liquid at room temperature), its synthesis led early researchers to believe that the reaction between the heaviest and lightest of a 'triad' of elements (three elements with similar chemical properties, now found in the same group of the modern periodic table) would produce the central element of the triad, the so-named 'Law of Averages'.