Phosphorus | Definition, Uses, & Facts (2024)

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.

History

Arabian alchemists of the 12th century may have isolated elemental phosphorus by accident, but the records are unclear. Phosphorus appears to have been discovered in 1669 by Hennig Brand, a German merchant whose hobby was alchemy. Brand allowed 50 buckets of urine to stand until they putrified and “bred worms.” He then boiled the urine down to a paste and heated it with sand, thereby distilling elemental phosphorus from the mixture. Brand reported his discovery in a letter to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and, thereafter, demonstrations of this element and its ability to glow in the dark, or “phosphoresce,” excited public interest. Phosphorus, however, remained a chemical curiosity until about a century later when it proved to be a component of bones. Digestion of bones with nitric or sulfuric acid formed phosphoric acid, from which phosphorus could be distilled by heating with charcoal. In the late 1800s James Burgess Readman of Edinburgh developed an electric furnace method for producing the element from phosphate rock, which is essentially the method employed today.

Occurrence and distribution

Phosphorus is a very widely distributed element—12th most abundant in crustEarth’s , to which it contributes about 0.10 weight percent. Its cosmic abundance is about one atom per 100 atoms of silicon, the standard. Its high chemical reactivity assures that it does not occur in the free state (except in a few meteorites). Phosphorus always occurs as the phosphate ion. The principal combined forms in nature are the phosphate salts. About 550 different minerals have been found to contain phosphorus, but, of these, the principal source of phosphorus is the apatite series in which calcium ions exist along with phosphate ions and variable amounts of fluoride, chloride, or hydroxide ions, according to the formula [Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆(F, Cl, or OH)₂]. Other important phosphorus-bearing minerals are wavellite and vivianite. Commonly, such metal atoms as magnesium, manganese, strontium, and lead substitute for calcium in the mineral, and silicate, sulfate, vanadate, and similar anions substitute for phosphate ions. Very large sedimentary deposits of fluoroapatite are found in many parts of Earth. The phosphate of bone and tooth enamel is hydroxyapatite. (The principle of lessening tooth decay by fluoridation depends upon the conversion of hydroxyapatite to the harder, more decay-resistant, fluoroapatite.)

The chief commercial source is phosphorite, or phosphate rock, an impure massive form of carbonate-bearing apatite. Estimates of the total phosphate rock in Earth’s crust average about 65,000,000,000 tons, of which Morocco and Western Sahara contain about 80 percent. This estimate includes only ore that is sufficiently rich in phosphate for conversion to useful products by present methods. Vast quantities of material lower in phosphorus content also exist.

The only naturally occurring isotope of phosphorus is that of mass 31. The other isotopes from mass 24 to mass 46 have been synthesized by appropriate nuclear reactions. All of these are radioactive with relatively short half-lives. The isotope of mass 32 has a half-life of 14.268 days and has proven extremely useful in tracer studies involving the absorption and movement of phosphorus in living organisms.

Commercial production and uses

The principal technique for converting phosphate rock to usable materials involves acidulation of the crushed rock—with either sulfuric or phosphoric acids—to form crude calcium hydrogen phosphates that, being water-soluble, are valuable additions to fertilizer. Most of the output is burned to phosphoric anhydride and subsequently treated with water to form phosphoric acid, H₃PO₄. About 95 percent of the phosphate rock mined in the United States is used to make fertilizer or food supplements for animals. Concerns have arisen about phosphorus use, however. Most of the phosphorus is wasted on its journey from mining to being eaten by humans, and the wasted phosphorus ends up in waterways where it can cause algal blooms. Another concern is that increased phosphorus usage will deplete the nonrenewable supply of phosphate rock.

Only about 5 percent of the phosphorus consumed per year in the United States is used in the elemental form. Pyrotechnic applications of the element include tracers, incendiaries, fireworks, and matches. Some is used as an alloying agent, some is used to kill rodents, and the rest is employed in chemical synthesis. A large amount is converted to sulfides used in matches and in the manufacture of insecticides and oil additives. Most of the remainder is converted to halides or oxides for subsequent use in synthesizing organic phosphorus compounds.