page_title: Allotropes of phosphorus
section_title: Black phosphorus
hierarchical_section_title: Allotropes of phosphorus / Black phosphorus
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a unit cell of black (orthorhombic) phosphorus with spacegroup Cmca
context_page_description: Elemental phosphorus can exist in several allotropes, the most common of which are white and red solids. Solid violet and black allotropes are also known. Gaseous phosphorus exists as diphosphorus and atomic phosphorus.
context_section_description: Black phosphorus is the thermodynamically stable form of phosphorus at room temperature and pressure, with a heat of formation of -39.3 kJ/mol (relative to white phosphorus which is defined as the standard state). It was first synthesized by heating white phosphorus under high pressures (12,000 atmospheres) in 1914. As a 2D material, in appearance, properties, and structure, black phosphorus is very much like graphite with both being black and flaky, a conductor of electricity, and having puckered sheets of linked atoms. Phonons, photons, and electrons in layered black phosphorus structures behave in a highly anisotropic manner within the plane of layers, exhibiting strong potential for applications to thin film electronics and infrared optoelectronics.
  Black phosphorus has an orthorhombic pleated honeycomb structure and is the least reactive allotrope, a result of its lattice of interlinked six-membered rings where each atom is bonded to three other atoms. Black and red phosphorus can also take a cubic crystal lattice structure. The first high-pressure synthesis of black phosphorus crystals was made  by the physicist Percy Williams Bridgman in 1914. A recent synthesis of black phosphorus using metal salts as catalysts has been reported.
caption: Black phosphorus
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