Atomic number 19 occurs as chemical element in the periodic table. It has a symbol 1000 (L. kalium) and atomic number 19. A title "potassium" comes from either a word "potash", when atomic number 19 was number 1 isolated from either potash. K occurs as easy silvery-white metal alkali metal that occurs naturally bound to more elements inside seawater and many minerals. It oxidizes rapidly in air, is very reactive, especially in water, and resembles sodium chemically.

Notable characteristics
By having the density to a lesser degree that of a body of water, atomic number 19 is the 2nd lightly metal when lithium. These are the easy firm that might well exist as cut using the knife & is silvery inside color in recently shells. It oxidizes in air rapidly and must exist as stored inside mineral oil or kerosene for preservation.

Similar to more alkali metals, k reacts violently by using water producing hydrogen. When in fluids, it will erupt spontaneously. Its salts emit the violet color when exposed to the fire.

Applications
Potassium oxide is primarily used within fertilizer. Potassium hydroxide is an important industrial chemical substance utilized as a heavy base. Potassium nitrate is used around gunpowder and black powder. An older term for KNO_Three is saltpeter. Potassium carbonate, known as potash, is used within glass manufacture. Glass treated with liquid k is great deal stronger than regular glass. NaK, an alloy of sodium and potassium, is utilized as a heat-transport medium. Potassium is an essential component required inside plant growth and is uncovered inside virtually all soil types. In animal cells potassium ions come vital to keeping cells alive (watch Na-K pump) Potassium chloride is used as a substitute for table salt and is also wont to prevent a heart, e.g. inside cardiac surgery and in executions by lethal injection in liquid form. The superoxide KO₂ is utilized as a personal source of atomic number 8 & as a carbon dioxide absorber. These are utile around portable respiration systems. Numbers of atomic number 19 salts may be crucial, & include: potassium bromide, potassium carbonate, potassium chlorate, potassium chloride, potassium chromate, potassium cyanide, potassium dichromate, potassium iodide, potassium nitrate, potassium sulfate.

History
Atomic number 19 was found within 1807 by Sir Humphrey Davy, who derived it from either caustic potash (KOH). Atomic number 19 was a number one metal that was isolated by electrolysis.

Atomic number 19 was non known inside Roman times, and its list are non Classical Latin.
A title kalium was taken from either a word "alkali", which came from either Arabic al qalīy = "the calcined ashes".
A title k was processed from either a word "potash", which is English, and originally intended an alkali extracted in the pot from either a ash of burned wood or even tree leaves.

Occurrence
Atomic number 19 is astir Two.40% of the weight of the Earth's crust and is the seventh virtually all abundant element within it. When these are super electropositive, potassium metal is hard to obtain from either its minerals.

Atomic number 19 salts like carnallite, langbeinite, polyhalite, and sylvite are found around ancient lake and sea beds. These minerals form extensive deposits within these environments, making extracting k & its salts additional economic. A primary source of atomic number 19, potash, is mined in California, Germany, New Mexico, Utah, and inside more web pages around the world. 3000 foot beneath a surface of Saskatchewan are large deposits of potassium hydroxide which might turn into crucial sources of this element & its salts later.

A oceans are the second source of k, however a quantity present inside a given volume of seawater is relatively sale in comparison sodium.

K may be isolated across electrolysis of its hydroxide in a run that has changed little since Davy. Thermal methods besides come listed within atomic number 19 production, applying potassium chloride. Atomic number 19 is most never obtained unbound around nature and severity. Nonetheless, inside dwelling parasites M⁺ ions come crucial in the physiology of irritable cells.

Isotopes
There are 17 known isotopes of potassium. 3 isotopes occur naturally: K-39 (93.3%), K-4Nought (0.01%) & K-41 (Sixer.7%). Naturally occurring K-40 decays to stable Ar-40 (11.2%) by electron capture and by positron emission, and decays to stable Ca-40 (88.8%) by beta decay; K-40 has a half-life of 1.250 × 10⁹ years.

the decompose of K-40 to Ar-40 enables a normally utilized method for dating rocks. A conventional K-Ar dating method depends on a assumption that a rocks contained there are no ar at the period of formation & that all the subsequent radiogenic ar (i personally.e., Ar-40) was quantitatively retained. Minerals are dated by measuring of a concentration of k & the total of radiogenic Ar-40 that has accumulated. A minerals that come better suited for dating include biotite, muscovite, plutonic/high grade metamorphic hornblende, and volcanic feldspar; whole rock samples from either volcanic flows & shallow instrusives can likewise become dated in case it is unchanged.

Outside of dating, atomic number 19 isotopes keep close at hand been utilized extensively when tracers in studies of weathering. It develop besides exist as utilized for nutrient cycling studies because potassium occurs as macro-nutrient required for life.

K-40 occurs withwithinside natural k (& so in a bit of commercial salt substitutes) in sufficient quantity that big bags of victims substitutes may be utilized as a radioactive source for schoolroom demonstrations.

Precautions
Firm atomic number 19 reacts violently sustaining the water system, & should so exist as saved under a mineral oil like kerosene and handled with care. Unlike atomic number 3 & atomic number 11 nevertheless, k can't exist as stored under oil indefinitely. Whenever stored yearn than Sixer months to a year, unsafe shock-sensitive peroxides could form on a metal & under the lid of the container that might detonate upon opening. Don't store atomic number 19, atomic number 37 or even even atomic number 55 for hanker than the year unless stored inside an inert (ar) atmosphere or inside a vacuum.

Potassium in diet
Atomic number 19 occurs as necessary mineral withwithwithwithin every day nutrition; it helps in contraction & in maintaining fluid & electrolyte balance in immune system cells. K is likewise crucial within sending nerve impulses when well as releasing energy from either protein, fat, & saccharide in the period of metabolism. The shortage of atomic number 19 could stimulate the possibly disastrous trouble called hypokalemia. Eating the kind of nutrients that contain k is the better way for an adequate total. Hardy souls world health organization eat the balanced diet seldom require supplements. Nutrients sustaining high sources of atomic number 19 include bananas, avocados, celery and turnips, although many more fruits, vegetables, & meats contain k.