Commercial Potassium

The U.S. domestic commercial potassium nitrate of the 1990s contains 13.9% N, 44.1% I+O, 0—1.8% Cl, 0.1% acid insoluble, and 0.08% moisture. The material is manufactured by Vicksburg Chemical Co. using a process developed by Southwest Potash Division of AMAX Corp. This process uses highly concentrated nitric acid to catalyze the oxidation of by-product nitrosyl chloride and hydrogen chloride to the mote valuable chlorine (68). The much simplified overall reaction is... 

Potassium up to 99.99% purity can be produced by 2one refining (qv) or further distillation (qv) of commercial potassium. Technical-grade potassium is minimum 99% and is packaged under nitrogen. 

Commercial potassium cyanide made by the neutralization or wet process contains 99% KCN the principal impurities are potassium carbonate, formate, and hydroxide. To prepare 99.5 + % KCN, high quahty hydrogen cyanide and KOH must be used. 

The submitters employed alcohol-free potassium ferf-butoxide, purchased from K K Laboratories, without further purification the checkers employed comparable material taken from a freshly opened bottle purchased from MSA Research Corporation. The submitters report that among approximately ten different bottles of commercial potassium terf-butoxide used, only material from one bottle failed to form the tricarbonate in this procedure. The defective material in this one bottle was an extremely fine powder that failed to dissolve when... 

If a solution of a nitrite is titrated in the ordinary way with potassium permanganate, poor results are obtained, because the nitrite solution has first to be acidified with dilute sulphuric acid. Nitrous acid is liberated, which being volatile and unstable, is partially lost. If, however, a measured volume of standard potassium permanganate solution, acidified with dilute sulphuric acid, is treated with the nitrite solution, added from a burette, until the permanganate is just decolorised, results accurate to 0.5-1 per cent may be obtained. This is due to the fact that nitrous acid does not react instantaneously with the permanganate. This method may be used to determine the purity of commercial potassium nitrite. 

Table 1. Typical Analysis of Commercial Potassium Metal Showing Impurities IN ppm ...

Treatment of methyl p-chlorobenzoate with an equivalent amount of commercial potassium silanolate 97 in abs. diethyl ether affords, after 4h, pure, anhydrous potassium p-chlorobenzoate in 84% yield and methoxytrimethylsilane 13 a. Trimethylsilyl trifluoroacetate reacts hkewise with sodium trimethylsilanolate 96 in THF to give sodium trifluoroacetate, in 98% yield, and hexamethyldisiloxane 7 [119] (Scheme 4.45). 

Fig. 9. Invariant cycling state temperature profiles for a three-stage, 800 mm diameter pilot plant S02 converter with interstage cooling. Profiles were measured just before switching of the flow direction and are for S02 at 7.6 vol% and a superficial velocity of 0.07 m/s. Catalyst was a commercial potassium-promoted vanadia, Type S101. (Figure adapted from Xiao and Yuan, 1996, with permission of the authors.)...

If commercial potassium formate is used it should be dried under reduced pressure at 8o°. One and one-half to two moles should be used per mole of the bromo compound. 

Commercial potassium I-butoxide is used directly as obtained from the Mine Safety Appliance Research Corp., Gallery, Pennsylvania. 

Commercial potassium hydroxide (min 85.5% of potassium hydroxide) was used. The yield is based on potassium hydroxide. 

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