I was just wondering if phosphoruous can react with steam? I know it has no chemistry with water but I reckon that it might react with steam in gaseous state/form i.e. P(g)

 

What you guys think?

 

throw in your idea, comments etc they are welcome.

you could probably calculate whether the reaction is spontaneous using some empirical data from a textbook. perhaps P4 can take the oxygen from water to form P4O10? do you know the calculation for deltaG?

you mean calculating deltaG using the E values? well if there is no chemistry of phosphorus with water then it would be useless to try getting the deltaG dont you think?

 

I was searching that on the internet and this is what caught my attention and looks like phosphorus does react with steam and makes phosporus acid;

 

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2706146.pdf

i meant you could write the equation, perhaps for the formation of P4O10 from P4 and H20 and calculate deltaG from the deltaS and deltaH, which can be calculated from heats of formation and entropies. however, your method seems to have paid off quicker... assuming of course that the patent has any validity

Write the equation and get the dG from the data. Then decide whether it is possible or not thermodynamically. Even if it is thermodynamically allowed under certain conditons, the only other thing you have to consider is kinetic barrier. If the activation energy is very high, even at the high temperatures, then the chances of this reaction are even more limited.