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 bisulfate forms potassium pyrosulfate and water: Temperatures above 600 °C further decompose potassium bisulfate to potassium sulfate and sulfur trioxide: Aqueous solutions of potassium bisulfate behave as two separate, uncombined compounds, KSO and HSO. Adding ethanol to the solution precipitates out potassium sulfate. Potassium bisulfate is commonly used to prepare potassium bitartrate for winemaking. Potassium bisulfate is also used as a disintegrating agent in analytical chemistry or as a precursor to prepare potassium persulfate, a powerful oxidizing agent. Potassium bisulfate Potassium bisulfate, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula KHSO and is the potassium acid salt of sulfuric acid.