Potassium Chloride essays

Potassium Chloride essays KCl is a compound, a combination of 2 elements: Potassium + Chloride. Potassium chloride is a colorless or white, cubic, crystalline compound. It is odorless, stable in air and highly soluble in water. Potassium chloride is soluble in water and alcohol and closely resembles common salt. Potassium chloride occurs pure in nature as the mineral sylvite and is found combined in many minerals and in brines and ocean water. It is produced from sylvinite, a sodium chloridepotassium chloride mineral that is refined by fractional crystallization and by a flotation process. The primary use of potassium chloride is in the production of fertilizers; it is also used in chemical manufacture. Potassium chloride is also used in fire extinguishers, which use stored pressure to discharge the agent, and the fire is extinguished mainly by the interruption of the combustion chain reaction. Potassium chloride has a variety of uses ranging from the main ingredient in soil fertilizers to being the agent by which other potassium salts are created. These compounds are used in making soaps, detergents, and other water absorbing compounds used in making glass and textile dyes. In the winter, KCl is also used as a salt to melt ice on sidewalks and roadways. Potassium chloride is also used in baby formulas and cheeses. For example, Colby, Swiss, parmesan and hard cheeses. It is also used in snack foods such as pretzels and corn chips. Welding fluxes and products also contain some form of potassium chloride. Potassium chloride has a melting point of 772 degrees Celsius and a boiling point of about 1500 degrees Celsius. It also has a relative density of two. Potassium chloride has an interesting property of being more soluble than sodium chloride in hot water but less soluble in cold water. Potassium chloride is also a prescription drug used to replace potassium in people with low blood levels of potassium, to prevent pot ...