As in the case of sulfur, the P=O double bonds drawn in some of the formulas do not consist of the customary sigma & pi-orbitals found in carbon double bonds. Phosphorus is a third row element, and has five empty 2d-orbitals that may be used for p-d bonding in a fashion similar to p-p (π) bonding. In this way phosphorus may expand an argon-like valence shell octet by two electrons (e.g. phosphine oxides).