Element 19 of Periodic table is Potassium with atomic number 19, atomic weight 39.0983. Potassium, symbol K, has a Body Centered Cubic structure and Silver color. Potassium is a alkali metal element. Trivial name of Potassium is alkali metals*. Know everything about Potassium Facts, Physical Properties, Chemical Properties, Electronic configuration, Atomic and Crystal Structure.
Potassium is a chemical element with symbol K (derived from Neo-Latin, kalium) and atomic number 19. It was first isolated from potash, the ashes of plants, from which its name is derived. In the Periodic table, potassium is one of seven elements in column (group) 1 (alkali metals):they all have a single valence electron in their outer electron shell, which they readily give up to create an atom with a positive charge - a cation, and combine with anions to form salts.
Read key information and facts about element Potassium
Explore our interactive periodic table
Periodic table is arranged by atomic number, number of protons in the nucleus which is same as number of electrons. The atomic number increases from left to right. Periodic table starts at top left ( Atomic number 1) and ends at bottom right (atomic number 118). Therefore you can directly look for atomic number 19 to find Potassium on periodic table.
Another way to read periodic table and locate an element is by using group number (column) and period number (row). To locate Potassium on periodic table look for cross section of group 1 and period 4 in the modern periodic table.
Explore Interactive Periodic Table to Understand and Learn Cool Trends
The element Potassium was discovered by Humphry Davy in year 1807 in United Kingdom . Potassium derived its name from New Latin potassa, 'potash' (kalium in Latin)
The table below shows the abundance of Potassium in Universe, Sun, Meteorites, Earth's Crust, Oceans and Human Body.
The solid state structure of Potassium is Body Centered Cubic.
The Crystal structure can be described in terms of its unit Cell. The unit Cells repeats itself in three dimensional space to form the structure.
The unit cell is represented in terms of its lattice parameters, which are the lengths of the cell edges Lattice Constants (a, b and c)
and the angles between them Lattice Angles (alpha, beta and gamma).
The positions of the atoms inside the unit cell are described by the set of atomic positions ( xi, yi, zi) measured from a reference lattice point.
The symmetry properties of the crystal are described by the concept of space groups. All possible symmetric arrangements of particles in three-dimensional space are described by the 230 space groups (219 distinct types, or 230 if chiral copies are considered distinct.
Potassium atoms have 19 electrons and the electronic shell structure is [2, 8, 8, 1] with Atomic Term Symbol (Quantum Numbers) 2S1/2.
Shell Structure of Potassium - Electrons per energy level
The ground state electronic configuration of Neutral Potassium atom is [Ar] 4s1. The portion of Potassium configuration that is equivalent to the noble gas of the preceding period, is abbreviated as [Ar]. For atoms with many electrons, this notation can become lengthy and so an abbreviated notation is used.This is important as it is the Valence electrons 4s1, electrons in the outermost shell that determine the chemical properties of the element.
Complete ground state electronic configuration for the Potassium atom, Unabbreviated electronic configuration
1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s1
Potassium atomic radius is 243 pm, while it's covalent radius is 196 pm.
243 pm (2.43 Å)
The electron affinity of Potassium is 48.4 kJ/mol
Refer to table below for Ionization energies of Potassium
Refer to below table for Potassium Physical Properties
Potassium is Conductor of electricity. Refer to table below for the Electrical properties of Potassium
Refer to table below for Thermal properties of Potassium
Isotopes of rhodium. Naturally occurring Potassium has 2 stable isotope - 39K, 41K.
List of unique identifiers to search the element in various chemical registry databases