Phosphorus and Potassium - Comparison - Properties

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

phosphorus and potassium - comparison

Compare phosphorus with another element

Compare potassium with another element

Phosphorus and Potassium – About Elements

Phosphorus

As an element, phosphorus exists in two major forms—white phosphorus and red phosphorus—but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Earth. At 0.099%, phosphorus is the most abundant pnictogen in the Earth’s crust.

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.

Phosphorus in Periodic Table

Potassium in Periodic Table

Source: www.luciteria.com

Phosphorus and Potassium – Applications

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is an essential plant nutrient (the most often limiting nutrient, after nitrogen), and the bulk of all phosphorus production is in concentrated phosphoric acids for agriculture fertilisers, containing as much as 70% to 75% P2O5. The vast majority of phosphorus compounds mined are consumed as fertilisers. Phosphate is needed to replace the phosphorus that plants remove from the soil, and its annual demand is rising nearly twice as fast as the growth of the human population. Other applications include organophosphorus compounds in detergents, pesticides, and nerve agents.

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.

Phosphorus and Potassium – Comparison in Table

Element	Phosphorus	Potassium
Density	1.823 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	0.5	0.4
Brinell Hardness	N/A	0.36 MPa
Vickers Hardness	N/A	N/A
Melting Point	44.1 °C	63.25 °C
Boiling Point	280 °C	760 °C
Thermal Conductivity	0.235 W/mK	102.4 W/mK
Thermal Expansion Coefficient	N/A	83 µm/mK
Specific Heat	0.77 J/g K	0.75 J/g K
Heat of Fusion	0.657 kJ/mol	2.334 kJ/mol
Heat of Vaporization	51.9 kJ/mol	79.87 kJ/mol