The difference between potassium and sodium was not discovered until the 18th century. "Vegetable alkali" also known as potassium carbonate came from the earth. "Mineral alkali" also known as sodium carbonate came from wood ashes. Early chemists did not recognise that these were two different chemical compounds.
Sir Humphry Davy discovered potassium in 1807 in England, by isolating it using electrolysis. Potassium was the first metal to be isolated by using electrolysis. The name potassium originated from the English word "potash" meaning pot ashes and the Arabic word "qali" meaning alkali. This was because potassium was originally obtained by soaking wood ashes in water and then evaporating the mixture in an iron pot. The origin of the elements symbol “K” comes from the Latin word "kalium" meaning potassium. Potassium used to be called kalium, so the element symbol is 'K'.
Potassium is an "Alkali Metal," and a solid element. Alkali Metals are very reactive metals that do not occur freely in nature. They are are soft, malleable, and good conductors of heat and electricity. It is the 19th element on the periodic table, and located in group 1, period 4.
Potassium is very reactive, and is never found free in nature. It is the eighth most abundant element on earth, and makes up about 2.1% of the earth's crust. Potassium is obtained from the minerals sylvite, carnallite, langbeinite, alunite, and polyhalite. These minerals are mainly found in sea beds and ancient lakes. Potassium is also found in caustic potash. Caustic potash is mainly mined in Germany, New Mexico, California and Utah. Annual world production of potassium is about 200 tons. Primary mining areas for Potassium are Germany, Spain, Canada, USA and Italy.
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...m in order to survive. Potassium is one of three primary nutrients required by plants.
Potassium works with sodium to aid in the digestion of food and in functioning of the eyes. People whose diets are low in potassium can develop hypokalemia, which in severe cases can be life threatening. Symptoms include irregular heartbeat, fatigue, muscle cramps and constipation. It is unusual for people to be deficient in potassium just because of getting too little of it in their diets, and usually is caused by other ongoing issues in the digestive system.
There are few uses for potassium as a pure element because of its highly reactive nature. When handled there must be full skin and eye protection, and in most cases a explosion-resistant barrier between the user and the metal. In the United States potassium chloride is used for executions by a lethal injection.
Aluminum is the third most abundant element and most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust. Aluminum is never found in the free element state in nature. It
Minerals play an important role in our day-to-day life but we often not contemplate how the minerals are obtained. Minerals are scattered all over the world just like any other resources. Due to the natural processes of magma flow, hydrothermal gradients, sedimentation, and evaporation, Minerals are concentrated in various areas of the Earth’s crust. Obtaining these minerals for human use involves four general steps:
Just like many other scientific discoveries, the discovery and isolation of lithium was a group effort. In 1817, a Swedish scientist by the name of Johan Arfwedson was the first person to discover Lithium. While doing an analysis on the mineral petalite in 1817, Arfwedson found this soft, silver-white element. Jons Jakob Berzelius, another Swedish chemist, named the element the Greek name “lithos.” Later on, the element’s name was then changed to lithium. Although lithium had finally been discovered, none of the aforementioned scientists were able to isolate pure lithium without it being attached to its salts. It was not until 1821 when two English chemists by the names of Sir Humphrey Davy and William Thomas Brande isolated lithium by electrolyzing lithium oxide (LiO2).
The chemical element tungsten, atomic number 74, is listed as a transition metal in group VIB on the Periodic Table of Elements. Tungsten was formerly known by the Germanic name Wolfram, after the tungsten mineral wolframite, hence its chemical symbol W. The name tungsten was derived from the Swedish words tung and sten, meaning heavy stone, because of its high density. Discovery of the element is credited to Spanish brothers Fausto Jermin and nobleman Juan Jose de Elhuyar in the early 1780s (1, 2).
Two chemists came upon the discovery and those two are: Sir William Ramsay, who is from Scotland, and Morris M. Travers who is from our homeland. This element was founded on May 30, 1898. The way that those two came upon the element Krypton was that they first found the elements Argon and Helium. From using their common knowledge they figured that there had to be some elements between those two on the periodic table, so they did a ton of experiments and through trials and trials they came up with a couple more elements and one of those elements was Krypton. Next the essay will discuss the shape of Krypton and where it is found.
Potassium (K+) is an important mineral the body needs to maintain and regulate many functions in the body. It is essential to life because it helps balance body water, regulate blood pressure, maintain heart function, and facilitate various cellular and tissue functions. Its function inside the cells is influenced by it positive electrical charge, which makes it a cation and an electrolyte, or a substance that regulates the flow of molecules, particularly water, across cell membranes.
From the Greek word "lithos" meaning "stone", it was so named due to the fact that it was discovered from a mineral source; whereas the other two common Group 1 elements, Sodium and Potassium, were found in plant sources. Its symbol, Li, was taken directly from its name. Soon after stumbling upon Lithium, Arfvedson also found traces of the metal in the minerals Spodumene and Lepidolite. In 1818, C.G. Gmelin discovered that Lithium salts color flames a bright red. Neither, Gmelin or Arfvedson, however, were able to isolate the element itself from the Lithium salts. They both tried to reduce the oxide by heating it with Iron or Carbon, but neither met with the success of W.T. Brande and Sir Humphrey Davy. They managed to perform the first isolation of elemental Lithium by the electrolysis of Lithium oxide. Electrolysis is a chemical reaction, which is brought about by the passage of current from an external energy source such as a battery. In 1855, the scientists Bunsen and Mattiessen isolated larger quantities of the metal by electrolysis of Lithium chloride.
The human body needs potassium to function. The body may become short of potassium in many situations. Excessive physical activity, severe cases of stress, drinking of alcohol or coffee all consume the potassium in the body leaving the person with a deficiency of the mineral. As a result of this deficiency severe fatigues, muscle weakness, nervous disorders, cardiac arrest, and poor reflexes can occur. Too much potassium in the body may result in dehydration. The kidneys can retain or get rid of too much potassium. Either extreme is dangerous for the body.
Uranium was discovered by Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a German chemist, in the mineral pitchblende (primarily a mix of uranium oxides) in 1789.Klaproth, as well as the rest of the scientific community, believed that the substance he extracted from pitchblende was pure uranium, it was actually uranium dioxide (UO2). After noticing that 'pure' uranium reacted oddly with uranium tetrachloride (UCl4), Radioactivity was first discovered in 1896 when Antoine Henri Becquerel, a French physicist, detected it from a sample of uranium. Today, uranium is obtained from uranium ores such as pitchblende, uraninite , carnotite and autunite as well as from phosphate rock , lignite (brown coal) and monazite sand . Since there is little demand for uranium metal, uranium is usually sold in the form of sodium diuranate , also known as yellow cake, or triuranium octoxide).
Plants need a chlorophyll, light, clean air, carbon dioxide, water, nutrients, space, and time. Chlorophyll is a green pigment found inside the leaves; it allows for the absorption of light. Light provides warmth to a plant and can be used as a form of energy to facilitate the chemical reaction in photosynthesis. With a healthy environment made of clean air, it is easier for plants to take in light and the proper amount of carbon dioxide, a gas expelled from other organisms during cellular respiration. Water is crucial to survival.
Although it is colorless, it is characterized by its incredible red-orange and green spectral lines. A known property of rare gases, it is white and crystalline, with a cubic crystal structure that is face – centered (when solid). Krypton is not usually used to form compounds. However, some krypton compounds exist. Krypton is composed of thirty-six protons, meaning its atomic number is also thirty-six. It has a melting point of 115.79 K (Kelvin) and a boiling point of 119.93 K. This element is a non-metal and can be found in period 4, group 18 of the Periodic Table. Krypton has five stable isotopes and an oxidation state of 0. There are 33 known isotopes of Krypton with atomic mass numbers from 69 through 101. Naturally taking place, Krypton is made of six stable isotopes, two of which might theoretically be slightly radioactive, plus traces of radioisotopes that are produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere. The element has a relative atomic mass of 83.798. Since krypton is in the far right row of the periodic table, its outer layer contains eight
However, they also need many different minerals. salts, which help the plant to grow, make chlorophyll and. photosynthesis among other things. All green plants needed, in order of. importance, nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus,.
Brand was obsessed with finding the Philosopher’s Stone; this stone reputedly could change metals into gold. With his discovery, this made Brand the first known discoverer of an element. In 1669, he isolated human urine and distilled it which resulted in a white and waxy material. Brand named this material phosphorus (light bearer) because it glowed in the dark. This discovery was kept a secret until 1680 when an English chemist Robert Boyle discovered phosphorus independently. Boyle’s definition of this element was simply “a substance that cannot be broken down into a simpler substance by a chemical reaction”. This definition of the element lasted for three centuries until the discovery of subatomic
Used to make soap Ammonia NH3 Yes Alkali pH 10 The main active ingredient in household cleaning fluids Calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)2 No Base Slaked lime used in agriculture Aluminium hydroxide Al(OH)3 No Base Used in some indigestion tablets Acids and Alkalis Neutralisation Neutralisation is the reaction of an acid with a base or alkali until the solution is neutral (pH7). In neutralisation, the acid and base (or alkali) both lose their properties and the solution becomes neutral. A salt and water are formed. Neutralisation is used in the following everyday situations: * Farmers use an alkali called calcium hydroxide (slaked lime or lime). This is spread on the fields or ploughed ground.