Phosphorus

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Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly reactive and are therefore never found in nature. Elemental phosphorus can be prepared artificially, the two most common allotropes being white phosphorus and red phosphorus. With 31P as its only stable isotope, phosphorus has an occurrence in Earth's crust of about 0.1%, generally as phosphate rock. A member of the pnictogen family, phosphorus readily forms a wide variety of organic and inorganic compounds, with as its main oxidation states +5, +3 and −3. The isolation of white phosphorus in 1669 by Hennig Brand marked the scientific community's first discovery of an element since antiquity. The name phosphorus is derived from the Greek phōsphoros (Φωσφόρος) 'light-bearer', referring to Phosphorus, the god of the planet Venus, and inspired by the faint glow of white phosphorus when exposed to oxygen. This property is also at the origin of the term phosphorescence, meaning...

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