Polyphosphate

Triphosphates are salts or esters of polymeric oxyanions formed from tetrahedral PO₄ (phosphate) structural units linked together by sharing oxygen atoms. When two corners are shared the polyphosphate may have a linear chain structure or a cyclic ring structure. In biology the polyphosphate esters AMP, ADP and ATP are involved in energy transfer. A variety of polyphosphates find application in mineral sequestration in municipal waters, generally being present at 1 to 5 pm. GTP, CTP, and UTP are also nucleotides important in the protein synthesis, lipid synthesis and carbohydrate metabolism, respectively.