Question

What type of atom is phosphate?

Answer 1

`"Phosphate"` is not an atom but an ion radical, i.e. `PO_4^(3-)`

Explanation:

A phosphate is thus the salt of phosphoric acid, `H_3PO_4`. Because phosphates and biphosphates (`HPO_4^(2-)`) are generally insoluble, they are present in a lot of metal ores.