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 bifluoride it to generate, for the first time, hydrogen fluoride. Potassium bifluoride is prepared by treating potassium carbonate or potassium hydroxide with hydrofluoric acid: The electrolysis of KHF was used by Henri Moissan to isolate the element fluorine in 1886. A related material containing two equivalents of HF is also known, KHF (CAS#12178-06-2, m.p. 71.7 C). The industrial production of fluorine entails the electrolysis of molten KHF. Potassium bifluoride Potassium bifluoride is the inorganic compound with the formula KHF. This colourless salt consists of the potassium cation and the bifluoride (HF) anion. The salt is used in etchant for glass. Sodium