

Some phosphates, which help cure many urinary tract infections, are used to make urine more acidic. The medicinal type (salt) of phosphorus is phosphate. The hard dense enamel of mammalian teeth consists of fluoroapatite, a hydroxy calcium phosphate where some of the hydroxyl groups have been replaced by fluoride ions. These structures are made of crystalline calcium phosphate in the form of hydroxyapatite. Similar reactions exist for the other nucleoside diphosphates and triphosphates.Īn important occurrence of phosphates in biological systems is as the structural material of bone and teeth.

ATP and ADP are often referred to as high-energy phosphates, as are the phosphagens in muscle tissue. These phosphorylation and dephosphorylation reactions are the immediate storage and source of energy for many metabolic processes. Free orthophosphate anions can be released by the hydrolysis of the phosphoanhydride bonds in ATP or ADP. Organic phosphates are commonly found in the form of esters as nucleotides (e.g. , which can give orthophosphate by hydrolysis: Inorganic phosphate can be present also as of pyrophosphate anions [P In extracellular fluid (pH = 7.4), this proportion is inverted (61% [HPO Ions are present in significant amounts in the cytosol (62% [H At a neutral pH, as in the cytosol (pH = 7.0), the concentrations of the orthophoshoric acid and its three anions have the ratios Inorganic phosphate is generally denoted P i and at physiological (homeostatic) pH primarily consists of a mixture of [HPO In biological systems, phosphorus can be found as free phosphate anions in solution ( inorganic phosphate) or bound to organic molecules as various organophosphates. The various metaphosphate ions (which are usually long linear polymers) have an empirical formula of (PO Phosphate can form many polymeric ions such as pyrophosphate, (P This means that salts of the mono- and di-phosphate ions can be selectively crystallised from aqueous solution by setting the pH value to either 4.7 or 9.8.īehave as separate weak acids because the successive p K a differ by more than 4. At pH 13 or higher, the acid is completely dissociated as the phosphate ion, (PO Around pH 9.8 (mid-way between the second and third p K a values) the monohydrogen phosphate ion, [HPO , is practically the only species present. Around pH 4.7 (mid-way between the first two p K a values) the dihydrogen phosphate ion, [H At pH 1 or lower, the phosphoric acid is practically undissociated. The p K a values are the pH values where the concentration of each species is equal to that of its conjugate bases. In water solution, orthophosphoric acid and its three derived anions coexist according to the dissociation and recombination equilibria below Equilibrium As a rule, the hydrogen and dihydrogen phosphates are slightly more soluble than the corresponding phosphates.

Most other phosphates are only slightly soluble or are insoluble in water. The sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium, and ammonium phosphates are all water-soluble. Many phosphates are soluble in water at standard temperature and pressure. , which in turn is the conjugate base of orthophosphoric acid, H

, which in turn is the conjugate base of the dihydrogen phosphate ion H It is the conjugate base of the hydrogen phosphate ion H(PO The phosphate ion has a molar mass of 94.97 g/mol, and consists of a central phosphorus atom surrounded by four oxygen atoms in a tetrahedral arrangement. 1.4 Medical and biological research uses.
