Elemental phosphorus was first isolated from human urine, and bone ash was an important early phosphate source.
Phosphates are a component of DNA, RNA, ATP, and phospholipids, complex compounds fundamental to cells. Phosphorus is an element essential to sustaining life largely through phosphates, compounds containing the phosphate ion, PO 4 3−. Together with nitrogen, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth, phosphorus is classified as a pnictogen. The glow of phosphorus is caused by oxidation of the white (but not red) phosphorus - a process now called chemiluminescence. The term " phosphorescence", meaning glow after illumination, derives from this property of phosphorus, although the word has since been used for a different physical process that produces a glow.
White phosphorus emits a faint glow when exposed to oxygen – hence the name, taken from Greek mythology, Φωσφόρος meaning "light-bearer" (Latin Lucifer), referring to the " Morning Star", the planet Venus. In minerals, phosphorus generally occurs as phosphate.Įlemental phosphorus was first isolated as white phosphorus in 1669. It has a concentration in the Earth's crust of about one gram per kilogram (compare copper at about 0.06 grams). Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Earth. Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15.
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