Why does phosphorus have a low melting point?

1 Answer
anor277
Jan 1, 2018

#"White or yellow phosphorus"# has a melting point of #44.0# #""^@C#...

Explanation:

White phosphorus is molecular, i.e. we deal with discrete #P_4# tetrahedra. And molecular species should be reasonably volatile or low-melting in that the degree of intermolecular interaction is not substantial. On the other hand, there are several non-molecular allotropes of elemental phosphorus, the which have higher melting and boiling points.

Related questions
See all questions in Elements
Impact of this question
5511 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License