Phosphorus oxyanions

In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid, phosphoric acid .

anion

thumb|Trimetaphosphate is a cyclic trimer formed by the self reaction of metaphosphate ions A metaphosphate ion is an oxyanion that has the empirical formula . It was first postulated in 1955 but was not observed until 1979, when it was detected by mass spectrometry. Metaphosphate is an intermediate in the hydrolysis of phosphate esters but it is difficult to isolate, as it readily hydrolyses to from a dihydrogen phosphate ion () and tends to self-react in the absence of water to form rings or infinite chains: These species are also called metaphosphates and are generally stable, with some suc