Potassium in 1809, Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert proposed the name "Kalium" for Davy's "potassium". In 1814, the Swedish chemist Berzelius advocated the name "kalium" for potassium, with the chemical symbol "K". The English and French speaking countries adopted Davy and Gay-Lussac/Thénard's name Potassium, while the Germanic countries adopted Gilbert/Klaproth's name Kalium. The "Gold Book" of the International Union of Physical and Applied Chemistry has designated the official chemical symbol as K. Potassium is the second least dense metal after lithium. It is a soft solid with a low melting point, and can be easily cut with a knife. Freshly cut potassium is
Potassium ethyl xanthate as the anhydrous salt and is nonhygroscopic. Potassium ethyl xanthate is used in the mining industry as flotation agent for extraction of the ores of copper, nickel, and silver. The method exploits the affinity of these "soft" metals for the organosulfur ligand. Potassium xanthate is a useful reagent for preparing xanthate esters from alkyl and aryl halides. The resulting xanthate estes are useful intermediates in organic synthesis. The LD50 is 683 mg/kg (oral, rats) for potassium ethyl xanthate. Potassium ethyl xanthate Potassium ethyl xanthate (KEX) is an organosulfur compound with the chemical formula CHCHOCSK. It is a pale yellow powder