PHOSPHATES
Description
Description
Plants need the element phosphorus. Phosphorus was discovered around 1675 by German chemist Hennig Brand. He distilled a white glowing solid out of urine, and was thus the first to demonstrate that the chemicals of life contain phosphorus. Not until the next century did chemists fully develop the concept of an "element". Phosphorus was gradually recognized as an element, one of the first discovered since antiquity.
Phosphorus is highly reactive. The white form is famous for burning spontaneously in air. It is the active ingredient in WP grenades. Safer red phosphorus is used in matches to ignite upon striking. Other forms of phosphorus (violet, black) are colorful curiosities.
Minerals containing usable phosphorus are called phosphates. Such rocks are mined in China, the United States (particularly Florida), and the western Sahara desert (particularlyl Morocco). Ninety percent of phosphate rocks go to making fertilizer. The rocks are crushed and dissolved in acid to produce phosphoric acid. Phosphoric acid is combined with ammonia (ammonia contains
nitrogen) to make the common fertilizer diammonium phosphate.
Phosphates are also used in animal feed supplements. Phosphorus and phosphates are used in industry to manufacture, for example, detergents and soft drinks.
Runoff from farmlands that have been excessively fertilized is a pollution problem. Unwanted phosphates in waterways stimulate organism growth there, just as on land. The result is large blooms of algae that consume the available oxygen, and hence, dead fish.
Nitrogen
Phosphates
Potash
Precious
Nitrogen
