Phosphorus

Position of phosphorus in the periodic table.

Red phosphorus on a glass plate.

Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. 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 the planet.

Uses

The vast majority of phosphorus compounds mined are consumed as fertilizers. Phosphate is needed to replace the phosphorus that plants remove from the soil. Other applications include organophosphorus compounds in detergents and pesticides.

Dependencies

• Phosphorus
  • Fertilizer
• Wood
  • Matches

See also

• Carbon
• Helium
• Hydrogen
• Nitrogen
• Oxygen
• Silicon
• Sulfur
• Chemical elements

References

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Phosphorus, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).