Hey, guys! Today I'm going to show you violet phosphorus, also known as Hittorf's metallic phosphorus.
There’s very little information about it on the Internet.
In this video you’ll see a couple of chemical reactions with it
and learn about what makes it so different among the other allotropes of phosphorus.
What you're looking at now is a small piece of violet phosphorous with a mass of about ten grams
This sample was obtained by heating extra pure phosphorus to 500 degrees Celsius in sealed ampoules,
which you can tell judging by its shape.
It is an extra pure phosphorus used in the semiconductor industry
Johann Hittorf was the first to obtain violet phosphorus crystals by crystallizing from molten lead,
so violet phosphorus is sometimes called Hittorf's phosphorus
Take a look at these violet phosphorus macro footages
In fact, violet phosphorus doesn't differ much from red phosphorus chemically
Heating violet phosphorus to temperatures above its melting point make it turn into white phosphorus.
If we flow inert gas instead of air, you can see phosphorus burning turn into mild oxidation with the formation of cold flame
And if you want to know more about this non-burning flame, you should watch a video about it on my channel!
Red phosphorus ignites when it contacts with chlorine, and so does violet phosphorus
However, unlike red phosphorus that easily ignites on contact with bromine,
violet phosphorus does not ignite in the reaction with it
You know that red phosphorus is resistant to physical impact as well as in air,
but if you try to crack a piece like that, the fragments may ignite.
It's quite an unexpected phenomenon, but why does violet phosphorus ignite on cracking?
Let me know what you think the reason is, in the comments!
Thanks for watching guys and special thanks to my patrons, I hope you relly enjoyed this video. See ya in the next one