Question from textbook

[Riya Shah 4H]

6th edition 14.5 (d)
How would you balance the following reaction in a basic medium -
P4 (s) ----> H2PO2 ^- (aq) + PH3 (g)

[Bijan Mehdizadeh 1B]

I don't know if you can balance that specific reaction because there is H on the product's side but not the reactant's. Maybe you have to assume there is another reactant involved kind of like the acid base reactions when H20 is not always shown as a reactant

[Ibrahim Malik 1H]

The first step would be to balance all the phosphorus on both sides of the equation. Next, you would add an H2O to the reactant side in order to balance the oxygen. Once the oxygen and phosphorus are balanced, you add an H+ to whatever side is needed an balance the hydrogens. Since the reaction occurs in a basic solution, you would add the same amount of OH to the H+ you previously added to both sides of the equation. The OH you added to the side with the H+ would turn into H2O, and you can then cancel out and reduce the balanced equation.

[Srikar_Ramshetty 1K]

Since it states that it occurs in a basic medium you can also assume the presence of OH- molecules.