Potassium nitrite Potassium nitrite Potassium nitrite (distinct from potassium nitrate) is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K and nitrite ions NO, which forms a white or slightly yellow, hygroscopic crystalline powder that is soluble in water. It is a strong oxidizer and may accelerate the combustion of other materials. Like other nitrite salts such as sodium nitrite, potassium nitrite is toxic if swallowed, and laboratory tests suggest that it may be mutagenic or teratogenic. Gloves and safety glasses are usually used when handling potassium nitrite. Nitrite is present at trace levels
Group 3 element be reduced to their elements, meaning that the discovery of a new earth was equivalent to the discovery of the element within, which in this case would have been "yttrium". Until the early 1920s, the chemical symbol "Yt" was used for the element, after which "Y" came into common use. Yttrium metal was first isolated in 1828 when Friedrich Wöhler heated anhydrous yttrium(III) chloride with potassium to form metallic yttrium and potassium chloride. In 1869, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published his periodic table, which had empty spaces for elements directly above and under yttrium. Mendeleev made several predictions on the