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 bisulfate Potassium bisulfate Potassium bisulfate, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula KHSO and is the potassium acid salt of sulfuric acid. Mercallite, the mineralogical form of potassium bisulfate, occurs very rarely. Misenite is another, more complex, form of potassium bisulfate. Potassium bisulfate is prepared by neutralizing sulfuric acid with an equal molar amount of a potassium containing base, for example potassium hydroxide: Potassium bisulfate is also formed by the union of sulfuric acid with potassium sulfate: Potassium bisulfate is also the main by-product in the production of nitric acid from potassium nitrate and sulfuric acid: Thermal decomposition of potassium