Oxygen and Potassium - Comparison - Properties

This article contains comparison of key thermal and atomic properties of oxygen and potassium, two comparable chemical elements from the periodic table. It also contains basic descriptions and applications of both elements. Oxygen vs Potassium.

oxygen and potassium - comparison

Compare oxygen with another element

Compare potassium with another element

Oxygen and Potassium – About Elements

Oxygen

Oxygen is a colourless, odourless reactive gas, the chemical element of atomic number 8 and the life-supporting component of the air. It is a member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as well as with other compounds. By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium.

Potassium

Potassium was first isolated from potash, the ashes of plants, from which its name derives. In the periodic table, potassium is one of the alkali metals. All of the alkali metals have a single valence electron in the outer electron shell, which is easily removed to create an ion with a positive charge – a cation, which combines with anions to form salts. Naturally occurring potassium is composed of three isotopes, of which 40K is radioactive. Traces of 40K are found in all potassium, and it is the most common radioisotope in the human body.

Oxygen in Periodic Table

Potassium in Periodic Table

Source: www.luciteria.com

Oxygen and Potassium – Applications

Oxygen

Common uses of oxygen include production of steel, plastics and textiles, brazing, welding and cutting of steels and other metals, rocket propellant, oxygen therapy, and life support systems in aircraft, submarines, spaceflight and diving. Smelting of iron ore into steel consumes 55% of commercially produced oxygen. In this process, oxygen is injected through a high-pressure lance into molten iron, which removes sulfur impurities and excess carbon as the respective oxides, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Uptake of oxygen from the air is the essential purpose of respiration, so oxygen supplementation is used in medicine. Treatment not only increases oxygen levels in the patient’s blood, but has the secondary effect of decreasing resistance to blood flow in many types of diseased lungs, easing work load on the heart.

Potassium

Potassium (K) is an essential nutrient for plant growth. It’s classified as a macronutrient because plants take up large quantities of K during their life cycle. Agricultural fertilizers consume 95% of global potassium chemical production, and about 90% of this potassium is supplied as KCl. Due to its high degree of reactivity, pure potassium is rarely used in its elemental /metallic form. It is used as a powerful reducing agent in organic chemistry. Potassium/Sodium alloys are It used as a heat exchange medium . The heat in the potassium warms water and makes it hot enough to boil. Then water is changed into steam, which is used to work devices that generate electricity.

Oxygen and Potassium – Comparison in Table

Element	Oxygen	Potassium
Density	0.00125 g/cm3	0.856 g/cm3
Ultimate Tensile Strength	N/A	N/A
Yield Strength	N/A	N/A
Young’s Modulus of Elasticity	N/A	3.53 GPa
Mohs Scale	N/A	0.4
Brinell Hardness	N/A	0.36 MPa
Vickers Hardness	N/A	N/A
Melting Point	-209.9 °C	63.25 °C
Boiling Point	-195.8 °C	760 °C
Thermal Conductivity	0.02598 W/mK	102.4 W/mK
Thermal Expansion Coefficient	N/A	83 µm/mK
Specific Heat	1.04 J/g K	0.75 J/g K
Heat of Fusion	(N2) 0.7204 kJ/mol	2.334 kJ/mol
Heat of Vaporization	(N2) 5.56 kJ/mol	79.87 kJ/mol