Talk:Pyrophosphate

Chemical structure

What is the molecular structure of pyrophosphate anion P2O7(2-)?

163.175.162.3 15:11, 2 December 2004 (UTC)

Origin of the name pyrophosphate

Anyone know the origin of the name? I would have called it diphosphate. --Drewlew 06:31, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

According to the OED, pyrophosphoric acid is obtained by heating phosphoric acid, and the prefix pyro- refers to that heat (πυρ, pur, means fire in Greek). Pyrophosphate is the only molecule which contains bridging oxygen. (user jyoti)--Ben 10:55, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

My understanding of "pyro-" is as follows. You get fire when you don't have water to put it out. Let's apply the principle here. Two molecules of hydrogen phosphate have 6 hydrogen atoms, 8 oxygen atoms and 2 phosphorus atoms. One molecule of hydrogen pyrophosphate has 4 hydrogen atoms, 7 oxygen atoms and 2 phosphorus atoms. Thus, in colliding two hydrogen phosphates to form one hydrogen pyrophosphate, you lost 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom, which is the formula for a water molecule. You lost a water molecule that you needed to "put out the fire", so you got PYROphosphate.

As a further illustration, one of the classic du Pont polyimide formulations is their product PI-2540, which is delivered in beta-stage poly(aryl amide) with suspending solvent (principally NMP). PMDA is an acronym for "pyromelletic dianhydride". This is just benzene, except between vertices 1 and 2 and again between vertices 4 and 5 you yank off the 4 hydrogens and attach two acid anhydrides (ketone-oxygen-ketone). The acid anhydride is a condensation of two carboxylic acid radicals, so PMDA represents a loss of two water molecules, whence "pyro-". User:rabjrsoaksitup —Preceding undated comment added 16:24, 11 June 2009 (UTC).

It's interesting that "losing a water", or a dehydration reaction between two hydrogen phosphates, goes well with the "pyro" part of the etymology. It makes sense that a dehydration reaction is carried by heating a sample of hydrogen phosphate. However, this is all original research without a secondary source discussing the same reaction as well as the word association. --Chibibrain (talk) 18:23, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

If the "pyro" in "pyrophosphate" comes from "fire," why not include this basic information, which anyone reading this article would expect to find, in the actual text of the article, in order to make it properly encyclopedic? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 16:23, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Theory for Life's First Energy Source

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100612/sc_livescience/newtheoryforlifesfirstenergysource —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.85.14.106 (talk) 13:17, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

why PPi?

What does the "i" stand for in PPi? Strange that it's not mentioned in the article. --89.204.136.53 (talk) 22:54, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Usually, this denotes inorganic phosphate, so perhaps some mention should be made? Or a link to the inorganic compound page? Ardkorjunglist (talk) 23:24, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

I added that PPI stands for inorganic pyrophosphate, and I wikilinked the first occurrence on the page of 'inorganic phosphate'. Manudouz (talk) 09:36, 20 January 2019 (UTC)

WHERE ARE SIDE EFFECTS?

WHY do you not give informations on side effects and dangers of this food additif? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.227.244.217 (talk) 06:52, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Pyrophosphate/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Diphosphate redirects here - rated "high" as high school/SAT biology content (diphosphate) - tameeria 19:48, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Last edited at 19:48, 22 February 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 03:35, 30 April 2016 (UTC)