Potassium permanganate to potassium manganate (oxidation state +6) and manganese dioxide (oxidation state +4). Oxygen gas is also liberated. Potassium permanganate poses risks as an oxidizer. Contact with skin will result in a long lasting pinkish/purple stain. Potassium permanganate Potassium permanganate is an inorganic chemical compound and medication. As a medication it is used for cleaning wounds and dermatitis. It has the chemical formula KMnO and is a salt consisting of K and ions. It is a strong oxidizing agent. It dissolves in water to give intensely pink or purple solutions, the evaporation of which leaves prismatic purplish-black glistening crystals. In 2000,
Chemical element element cannot be transformed into other chemical elements by chemical processes. Elements during this time were generally distinguished by their atomic weights, a property measurable with fair accuracy by available analytical techniques. The 1913 discovery by English physicist Henry Moseley that the nuclear charge is the physical basis for an atom's atomic number, further refined when the nature of protons and neutrons became appreciated, eventually led to the current definition of an element based on atomic number (number of protons per atomic nucleus). The use of atomic numbers, rather than atomic weights, to distinguish elements has greater predictive value (since