What makes phosphorus unique or special?
It glows in the dark and is spontaneously flammable when exposed to air. Red phosphorus is an amorphous non-toxic solid. White phosphorus is used in flares and incendiary devices. Red phosphorus is in the material stuck on the side of matchboxes, used to strike safety matches against to light them.
What are 5 properties phosphorus?
Properties: The melting point of phosphorus (white) is 44.1°C, boiling point (white) is 280°C, specific gravity (white) is 1.82, (red) 2.20, (black) 2.25-2.69, with a valence of 3 or 5. There are four allotropic forms of phosphorus: two forms of white (or yellow), red, and black (or violet).
What makes phosphorus special?
phosphorus (P), nonmetallic chemical element of the nitrogen family (Group 15 [Va] of the periodic table) that at room temperature is a colourless, semitransparent, soft, waxy solid that glows in the dark.
Who discovered phosphorus element?
Hennig BrandPhosphorus / Discoverer
How did phosphorus get its name?
The name derives from the Greek phosphoros for “bringing light” because it has the property of glowing in the dark. This was also the ancient name for the planet Venus, when it appears before sunrise. Phosphorus was discovered by the German merchant Hennig Brand in 1669.
Was phosphorus accidentally discovered?
Hennig Brand was a German alchemist who lived and worked in Hamburg. In 1669, Brand accidentally discovered the chemical element phosphorus while searching for the “philosopher’s stone”, a substance which was believed to transmute base metals into gold.
What phosphorus smells like?
Phosphorus, white, dry or under water or in solution appears as a soft waxy solid with a sharp pungent odor similar to garlic.
Where is phosphorus mined?
Phosphorus is obtained mainly from the minerals apatite and fluorapatite. It is mined mostly in the USA (Florida), Kazakhstan, China, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Can you turn pee into gold?
In the 1660’s, German alchemist Hennig Brand thought he knew the secret to making solid gold: pee. So set was he on these golden ambitions, he dehydrated 1,500 gallons (gallons!) of human urine to make it happen. Though pee ultimately failed to produce gold, Brand didn’t have to flush all his hard work down the toilet.
Is phosphorus made from urine?
Our urine is an excellent source of raw material for phosphorous. Each one of us excretes up to half a kilogram of phosphorous per year, just through our urine. This makes urine the single largest source of phosphorous from urban areas.
What Colour is phosphorus?
Phosphorus, whose atomic symbol is P, is element 15 on the periodic table. Phosphorus has different colours — white phosphorus, red phosphorus, violet phosphorus and black phosphorus — depending on the arrangements of the bonds it forms.
What are some fun facts about phosphorus?
Phosphorus’s one stable isotope is 31 P. The melting point for white phosphorus is 111.5 °F (44.15 °C). The boiling point for white phosphorus is 536.9 °F (280.5 °C). Phosphorus is the 11th most abundant chemical element in the Earth’s crust. The composition of the Earth’s crust contains 0.105% phosphorus.
What elements can combine with phosphorus?
The Chemistry of Phosphorus Compounds. The chemistry of phosphorus is often dominated by the strength of the oxygen-phosphorus bond,which is around 152 kcal/mol (kilocalories per mole).
How does the element phosphorus help people?
Deficiency symptoms. Without phosphorus,plant growth is retarded.
What is phosphorus an element or compound?
Phosphorus is a chemical element found on Earth in numerous compound forms, such as the phosphate ion (PO43-), located in water, soil and sediments. The quantities of phosphorus in soil are generally small, and this often limits plant growth. That is why people often apply phosphate fertilisers on farmland. Animals absorb phosphates by eating plants or plant-eating animals.