Potassium is a light, silver element with 24 isotopes and is highly reactive with oxygen, water, halogens, and sulfuric acid. It acts as an electrolyte in the human body and is important for heart and muscle contractions. Potash is used as an agricultural fertilizer, and potassium nitrate is used in gunpowder and glass strengthening. Canada and Russia produce half of the world’s supply of potash. Potassium hydroxide is a strong base used in laboratory experiments.
Potassium is a bright silver element which is a very light metal, with only lithium being lighter and is the seventh most abundant element in the earth’s crust. It is strongly ionic, has 24 known isotopes, and combines rapidly with oxygen when exposed to air. Pure potassium also has an exothermic reaction when in contact with water, separating the hydrogen gas and igniting it due to the heat generated in the process. The element potassium has violent reactions with several compounds as does its close relative sodium. When it comes into contact with halogens, bromine and sulfuric acid, it can explode, so it must be handled with extreme care.
One of the important chemical properties of potassium is that it acts as an electrolyte in the human body to conduct electricity. This makes it important in biological functions such as heart and muscle contractions. In fact, potassium chloride is used to stop the heart during heart surgery. In high quantities, it has also been used since 1982 as a form of lethal injection for prisoners sentenced to death in the United States, with China following the practice in 1997 and other nations since.
The right amount of potassium in the body is influenced by sodium and magnesium levels, and if these levels are higher, more potassium is sometimes needed to balance them. Because potassium concentration can be very important, medical conditions have been established in medicine that define low levels, called hypokalemia, and high levels, called hyperkalemia. Most people get enough potassium for health in their diets, as it is found in all red meat and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.
As of 2006, over 95% of the potash produced worldwide was used as an agricultural fertilizer, and most of this was in the form of potash. The properties of potassium make it an important nutrient in plants as well in other ionized forms, such as potassium sulfate and potassium nitrate. Potassium nitrate is also used as a key ingredient in gunpowder and to strengthen glass. Together, Canada and Russia produce about half of the world’s supply of potash each year, and Canada is estimated to have 59.8% of the world’s reserves of the metal, with Russia having 13.6%.
One of the unique physical properties of potassium is its ability to act as a superoxide. KO2 has been used on Vostok, Soyuz and other Russian spacecraft as an oxygen generating compound for this reason. The properties of potassium hydroxide make it a strong base material used in many laboratory experiments to neutralize various acids. Potassium’s diverse properties in combination with other elements make it a versatile chemical for everything from making ink to gold mining and baking bread.
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