allotropicadj.

1843 tr. J. J. Berzelius in Chemist 4 486/1 There is good reason to believe that the gases of all elements contain in a certain volume the same number of simple atoms. Their specific heat is also in accordance with that.., and the exceptions which occur, for instance, with the gases of sulphur and phosphorus, rest evidently on allotropic causes.

1849 A. Schroetter in Rep. Brit. Assoc. 42 The allotropic red phosphorus was not ignited by friction.

1869 M. Somerville Molecular & Microsc. Sci. i. i. 16 Sulphur becomes allotropic by the continued application of heat.

1891 Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engineers 19 48 Iron, like phosphorus or sulphur, can pass into an allotropic state with distinct properties from ordinary iron.

1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xxxv. 683 On account of the slowness of the allotropic change, the transition temperature was determined by an electrical method.

1940 G. H. J. Adlam & L. S. Price Higher School Certificate Inorg. Chem. (ed. 2) xiv. 93 There are at least three solid allotropic forms of phosphorus.

2001 R. W. Cahn Coming of Materials Sci. iv. 161 Because of the allotropic transformations during cooling of iron from its melting-point, no other method would have worked for iron.

1876 Our Own Fireside 13 236/2 That great statesman, happily engrossed in playing with a little child, is he the same man who could hold his hearers spell-bound in debate? The same—but simply in an allotropic condition.

1926 Yale Rev. Jan. 283 The Elgin marbles and the scratching of the Aztecs are allotropic.

1988 R. Ellmann A Long Riverrun 194 That being is not stable but allotropic, or rather, it is a series of momentary adherences of confluent elements which are themselves changing and unforeseen.