preview

Phosphorus Research Paper

Decent Essays

Overview

Phosphorus is the 11th most abundant resource on plant earth. Phosphorus can neither by synthetically created or destroyed. Although it is theorised that we are approaching a point were we are using it faster than we can extract it from the ground.

Where is Phosphorus found?
Phosphorus is most commonly found in China with 100Mt being produced. Morocco and the Western Sahara are producing 30Mt and following that is United States, Russia, Jordan, Brazil, Egypt, Tunisia, Peru and Israel and Saudi Arabia.

How is Phosphorus made?
Phosphorus is not found directly in nature but is found in other minerals mainly in it’s namesake phosphates. As Phosphorus is never found it has different processes to allow the extraction from the other …show more content…

He discovered it while searching through his 66 buckets of urine and discovered that what he found glowed in the dark so he called it cold fire. Brands technique for accidentally discovering phosphorus was evaporating the urine until it left a black substance, leaving it for months, then burning off the gases and oils to leave a white substance which we know today as phosphorus.

Phosphorus in relation to the Periodic Table.
Phosphorus is in period 3 of group 15 on the periodic table. Phosphorus has an atomic number of 15 with a mass number of 30.974. Phosphorus is surrounded by Nitrogen in the nonmetal category. If you combine these two elements together you get fertilizer which helps growth.

Isotopes of Phosphorus.
Phosphorus as an element has a total of 23 isotopes from 24P to 46P although only one of these isotopes is stable being 31P. The isotope with the greatest use, however, would be Phosphorus 32. Phosphorus 32 is used in medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology to trade molecules which contain phosphorus which are called phosphorylated molecules. Phosphorus 32 has a half life of 14.29 days which is considered relatively short and the decay is quite rapid.

Two uses of Phosphorus in the …show more content…

Another somewhat common use of Phosphorus is in laundry detergents. This form of laundry detergent is commonly used in some country’s although it is banned in some others. Phosphoric acid is used to make Sodium tripolyphosphate which allows water molecules to pass into clothes and clean more effectively.

Two commonly used compounds of Phosphorus

1. One major commonly used compound is Phosphorus with Nitrogen in fertilizer. Phosphorus is essential to all living organisms and the necessity of phosphate-rich fertilizers is rising at twice the rate of the human population.
2. Another very common use of phosphorus in compounds in Phosphorus Pentoxide. Phosphorus Pentoxide is commonly used to dehydrate and dry. It is commonly used when the removal of water is necessary. P4010 is the chemical formula for this compound.

Conclusion

Phosphorus has greatly improved the quality of life for many people in this world since its discovery. Not only has it given us an idea of how our body systems work but it has also allowed us to create synthetic fertilizer. As well as this it has provided a means of starting fire on demand which was previously very hard and difficult. One downside is that given this knowledge of it’s properties is that explosive devices are sometimes used using Phosphorus’s

Get Access