Why does phosphorus glow in dark?
In: Chemistry
White phosphorus glows in the dark because it’s reacting with oxygen in the air. This reactions produces light. Other allotropes of phosphorus are much less reactive and don’t glow when exposed to oxygen.
The luminescent effect of phosphor is due to the chemical properties of its structure.
Incoming photons enter and strike a phosphor molecule, dissipating their energy and knocking an electron into a higher orbital. The atoms don’t like this, since now they’re in an unstable energy configuration and want to get back to their previous state. The electrons knocked out of orbit are free to be snatched up by excited phosphor atoms seeking to return to equilibrium- releasing all that energy as visible light when they leave their higher energy state and return to a stable one.
The sum total is visible luminescence we see.
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