Abstract
A KNOWLEDGE of the structure of phosphorus pentoxide, P4O10, enables predictions to be made concerning the mechanism of its hydration to orthophosphoric acid and particularly about the structures of the phosphoric acids formed intermediately1. In order of their formation, these would be expected to be H2P4O11, H4P4O12 (tetrameta-phosphoric acid), H6P4O13 (tetraphosphoric acid) and eventually mixtures of H5P3O10, H4P2O7 and H3PO4. Salts of tetrametaphosphoric acid have already been isolated and identified by X-ray and other methods from the alkaline hydrolysate of P4O10, and we have explored the use of paper chromatography as a means of separating the tetraphosphate ion. Aqueous solutions which would be expected to contain the latter were made by controlled alkaline hydrolysis of sodium tetrametaphosphate, using conditions analogous to those giving sodium triphosphate from sodium tri-metaphosphate and similar to those described by Thilo and Rätz2.
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References
Raistrick, B., J. Roy. Coll. Sci., 19, 9 (1949).
Thilo, E., and Rätz, R., Z. anory. Chem., 259–260, 255 (1949).
Hanes, C. S., and Isherwood, F. A., Nature, 164, 1107 (1949).
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WESTMAN, A., SCOTT, A. Chromatographic Evidence for the Tetraphosphate Ion. Nature 168, 740 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1038/168740a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/168740a0
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