In industry, potassium is prized for its solubility in compound form, and it’s very commonly used in potassium soaps. The good news is that it’s hard to be potassium deficient in your diet and fresh fruit and vegetables are an excellent source of potassium. Potassium is essential to human life and, in fact, all living cells and it allows for the conduction of nerve impulses through the cell wall. This means that in order to store potassium it must be kept in mineral oil or in a vacuum or isolated atmosphere, otherwise, you soon have no potassium and a large lump of potassium salts instead. It takes almost no time at all for potassium to react with oxygen in the air, for example, and form potassium peroxide (a white solid). It is also highly reactive and that means it’s never found in its pure form in nature, but always as part of a compound (and usually a highly ionic compound, at that). It is a very soft metal, and you can cut it using nothing more than a knife and very slight pressure. Potassium is an alkali metal that shares the same period of the periodic table as lithium, sodium, and cesium. Your # 1 priority is keeping your family safe. As a firefighter, I recommend everyone has updated smoke detectors that don’t require battery changes, like these ones from Kidde, a fire extinguisher, like this one from Amerex, and a fire escape ladder if you have bedrooms above the first floor, I recommend this one from Hausse.Īlso read: What Makes Something Flammable? What Is Potassium? It can react especially seriously when mixed with water.įor this reason, it is important to understand how potassium can behave and the safety concerns it carries. Potassium is a highly reactive element that can catch fire fairly easily. But does the fact that potassium is very reactive make it flammable and if so, is it a risk to be around? That’s probably because it’s highly reactive and it takes a bit of work to extract the pure element and it can’t be left out in the air or it won’t be pure for much longer. Potassium is not something that we encounter a lot in everyday life.
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