White phosphorus dissolves in boilling NaOH in an inert atmosphere of `CO_(2)` producing phosphine `(PH_(3))` gas and sodium hypophosphite `("NaH"_(2)"PO"_(2))`.
`underset("phosphorus")underset("White")(P_(4)+)underset("Sodium hydroxide")(3"NaOH")+3"H"_(2)"O"underset("CO"_(2)" atmosphere")overset("Heat")tounderset("Sodium")(3"NaH"_(2))"PO"_(2)underset("hypophosphite")underset("Phosphine")(+"PH"_(3)uarr)`
