Question

Can phosphorus conduct electricity?

Answer 1

Hint: The elements which are going to act as metals are good conductors. The conductors are going to allow the electricity to pass through it. That is why conductors conduct electricity through them with the unpaired electrons.

Complete answer:
- In the question it is asked can phosphorus conduct electricity.
- The chemical symbol which is going to represent a phosphorus atom is ‘P’.
- Phosphorus element is present in the fifth group of the periodic table.
- The atomic number of phosphorus is 15.
- The electronic configuration of phosphorus is $1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{6}}3{{s}^{2}}3{{p}^{3}}$ or $[Ne]3{{s}^{2}}3{{p}^{3}}$ .
- Phosphorus has three unpaired electrons in the 3p orbital.
- Three unpaired electrons are present in the valence shell even though phosphorus is not going to conduct electricity because half-filled or fully-filled orbitals are more stable than the normal unpaired electrons.
- Phosphorus is highly reactive but it is non-metal and won’t allow the electricity to pass through it.
- So, because of the higher stability of the half-filled electrons in 2p orbital makes phosphorus as an insulator.
- Therefore phosphorus is a bad conductor of electricity.

Note:
Phosphorus is a non-metal due to its highly stable half-filled electrons in the 3p orbital. Phosphorus belongs to the nitrogen family. The elements which are present in the nitrogen family are nonmetals including phosphorus. Phosphorus is a multivalent non-metal. In nature it exists in the forms of phosphates and exists in three allotropic forms (white (sometimes yellow also), red and black ).