• Question: what is your favorite way to use potassium in a reaction

    Asked by 377mecm24 to Shuo, Martin, Leonie, Lauren, Ciorsdaidh, Alan on 5 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Alan McCue

      Alan McCue answered on 5 Mar 2018:

      My favourite reaction with potassium is called the screaming jelly baby. You more or less burn a jelly baby in something which contains potassium and you get an amazing purple colour! and smoke and fire…

    • Photo: Leonie Bole

      Leonie Bole answered on 5 Mar 2018:

      That is a fantastic question!!

      I have not really worked with potassium before but I would love to! The most exciting thing about the alkali metals is the way that they change in terms of reactivity, charge density and even colour as you go down the group. The chemistry that I do sometimes is very flammable – potassium always tends to burn with a lovely lilac flame! Even if the chemistry doesn’t work…I’m sure destroying the chemicals afterwards would be just as fun!

Comments

  • Photo: Neil

    Neil commented on :

    I’ve made a potassium mirror before as a way of super-drying an organic solvent, so it removes every tiny trace of water. Sometimes this is important so the rest of your reaction doesn’t decide to spontaneously catch fire!