Group 15 Phosphorus, Arsenic, Antimony and Bismuth

Due to space restrictions a comprehensive review of organophosphorus chemistry cannot be included here. Instead emphasis has been placed on developments in low-coordination phosphorus chemistry. In this area a review has appeared on the chemistry of phosphaalkenes with an inverse polarisation, i.e. P=C +, to that normally seen for phosphaalkenes. Comparisons of the reactivity of these phosphaalkenes with classical phosphaalkenes were made. 

Organometallic Chemistry, Volume 30 The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2002 

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Many of the properties of the group 15 element diheteroferrocences are very similar to ferrocenes and other metallocenes. It seems justified to regard the diheteroferrocenes as perturbed ferrocenes just as we regard the group 15 heterobenzenes as perturbed benzenes. Thus, it is very clear that the elements phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth can take part in 7r-bonding in a manner similar to carbon. 

In 1985 McMahan and LeSar predicted that the triple bond in molecular nitrogen should be breakable under very high pressures and a solid should be formed which consists of trivalent (i.e. three-coordinate) nitrogen atoms (pressure-coordination rule). Such structures already exist at normal pressures for the other group 15 elements phosphorus, arsenic, antimony and bismuth. The transformation pressure for nitrogen should lie in a range between 500 and 940 kbar. An estimation... 

Nitrogen is the first member in Group 15 (VA) of the periodic table. The periodic table is a chart that shows how chemical elements are related to one another. Nitrogen is in a family group named after itself Other elements in the nitrogen family are phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth. 

Phosphorus, symbol P, atomic number 15, atomic weight 30.974, is a non-metallic p-block element which belongs to Group VA (Group 15) of the periodic table. The elements of this group, namely, nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony and bismuth, are sometimes known as pnicogens,... 

The first two elements in Group 15, nitrogen and phosphorus, have the electron configurations [Ng] 5 np while the heavier elements, arsenic, antimony and bismuth, have the electron configurations [Ng] (n — 1 )d. All the Group 15 elements form compounds... 

There are three kinds of rings of different nuclearity known for homoatomic group 15 anions (Fig. 7). For arsenic, three-, five-, and six-atom rings are described in solid state compounds, and for phosphorus only the six-atom ring is reported, whereas for antimony and bismuth no homoatomic rings are known in neat solid state materials of alkali and alkaline earth metals. 

FIGURE 15.1 The elements of Group 15. Back row, from left to right liquid nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic. Front row antimony and bismuth. 

Arsenic is a group 15 element on the periodic table along with nitrogen, phosphorus, antimony, and bismuth. The atomic mass of arsenic is 74.921 60 atomic mass units (amu) and its atomic number (Z)... 

Nitrogen is a colorless diatomic gas. Phosphorus has several elemental forms, but the most common is a red solid that is used for match tips. Arsenic and antimony are gray solids, and bismuth is a silvery solid. Classify these elements of Group 15 as metals, nonmetals, or metalloids. 

The trend in metallic properties is obvious as you go from the top of Group 15 to the bottom—from nitrogen (N) to phosphorus (P) to arsenic (As) to antimony (Sb) and bismuth (Bi). Nitrogen and phosphorus are nonmetals. They form covalent bonds to complete their outer-level configuration. Arsenic and antimony are metalloids and either gain or share electrons to complete their octets. Bismuth is more metallic and often loses electrons. 

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