Potassium lid of the container, and can detonate upon opening. Because of the highly reactive nature of potassium metal, it must be handled with great care, with full skin and eye protection and preferably an explosion-resistant barrier between the user and the metal. Ingestion of large amounts of potassium compounds can lead to hyperkalemia, strongly influencing the cardiovascular system. Potassium chloride is used in the United States for lethal injection executions. Potassium Potassium is a chemical element with symbol K (from Neo-Latin "kalium") and atomic number 19. It was first isolated from potash, the ashes of plants, from which its name
Atomic number was seen as containing 118 neutrons rather than 118 nuclear electrons, and its positive charge now was realized to come entirely from a content of 79 protons. After 1932, therefore, an element's atomic number "Z" was also realized to be identical to the proton number of its nuclei. The conventional symbol "Z" possibly comes from the German word (atomic number). However, prior to 1915, the word "Zahl" (simply "number") was used for an element's assigned number in the periodic table. Each element has a specific set of chemical properties as a consequence of the number of electrons present in the