Potassium tree leaves, adding water, heating, and evaporating the solution. When Humphry Davy first isolated the pure element using electrolysis in 1807, he named it "potassium", which he derived from the word potash. The symbol "K" stems from "kali", itself from the root word "alkali", which in turn comes from "" "al-qalyah" "plant ashes." In 1797, the German chemist Martin Klaproth discovered "potash" in the minerals leucite and lepidolite, and realized that "potash" was not a product of plant growth but actually contained a new element, which he proposed to call "kali". In 1807, Humphry Davy produced the element via electrolysis:
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