Potassium 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 derives. In the periodic table, potassium is one of the alkali metals. All of the alkali metals have a single valence electron in the outer electron shell, which is easily removed to create an ion with a positive charge – a cation, which combines with anions to form salts. Potassium in nature occurs only in ionic salts. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air
Potassium pyrosulfate Potassium pyrosulfate Potassium pyrosulfate, or potassium disulfate, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula KSO. Potassium pyrosulfate is obtained by the thermal decomposition of other salts, most directly from potassium bisulfate: Temperatures above 600°C further decompose potassium pyrosulfate to potassium sulfate and sulfur trioxide however: Other salts, such as potassium trisulfate, can also decompose into potassium pyrosulfate. Potassium pyrosulfate contains the pyrosulfate anion which has a dichromate like structure. The geometry can be visualized as a tetrahedron with two corners sharing the SO anion's configuration and a centrally bridged oxygen atom. A semi-structural formula for the pyrosulfate anion is