Potassium Sulphate Whisker

Potassium fertilizer is the most common fertilizer for us. Do you know what kinds of fertilizers there are? Potassium chloride, potassium nitrate, potassium sulfate, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, and wood ash are all very good potassium fertilizers. Potassium sulfate is the most commonly used in orchards. It is water-soluble, has a high utilization rate, and is moderately priced. It can add color to the expansion of fruits and improve the quality.

One acre of orchard uses about 150 kilograms a year. It can be buried, broadcast, or dripped. The method of use is flexible and convenient. Good quality potassium sulfate can also be used for foliar spraying. It has obvious effects on the expansion and cracking of fruits and is also very cost-effective. However, attention should be paid to the time and concentration of use. Potassium sulfate has many benefits and should be used scientifically.

Excessive or frequent use will also cause soil acidification, leading to manganese poisoning of crops or blackening and rotting of roots. Therefore, long-term use of potassium sulfate should be combined with some organic fertilizers, alkaline fertilizers, lime and other acidification fertilizers. It is best to use it in rotation with other potassium fertilizers, so that the nutrition will be more comprehensive.

First of all, there are two major categories of potash fertilizers, one is single-element potash fertilizers, and the other is compound fertilizers containing potassium. Common single-element potash fertilizers include potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, and potassium silicate. Potassium chloride: divided by origin, there are two types: red and white; the appearance is divided into block, powder and irregular granules; the potassium oxide content (expressed as K2O%) is generally 60% for imported products and 57% or 60% for domestic products. Potassium sulfate: generally white crystalline particles or powder. Some products are slightly variegated due to impurities. Domestic potassium sulfate includes those produced in Lop Nur or Taiwan, generally containing 50% K2O, and those produced in Germany are 54%. Potassium silicate: dark gray powder, an industrial by-product, the content can only be confirmed through testing, generally K2O is 10% to 14%, and it is alkaline. Common potassium-containing compound fertilizers, the potassium content of ternary compound fertilizers can be seen from the packaging bag: N-P2O5-K2O. Binary compound fertilizer - potassium nitrate: white crystalline particles, rarely seen in the market. Secondly, it is very complicated to distinguish the authenticity of potash fertilizers, and it must be solved by testing in the end. The simple identification method of potash fertilizer introduced here is only a qualitative identification method, which cannot identify the potassium content and has limited effect. One is the iron sheet burning method: put a few fertilizer particles (large or small) on a red-hot iron sheet and burn them. Those that do not melt, have no odor, and bounce when heated can be roughly identified as potash fertilizers. If the iron sheet is tilted so that the fertilizer particles are directly burned at high temperature, colored flames will appear. Golden and shiny flames are sodium, and light yellow with lavender flames are potassium. There is also a type of powdered potash fertilizer, which can be brick red, light red or white. The identification method is also to burn it on an iron sheet. Potash fertilizers are insoluble and odorless; while phosphate fertilizers are light gray, and although they are also insoluble, they have an odor. Additional explanation: If the fertilizer particles on the iron sheet melt after high temperature and there is thick smoke, those with ammonia smell are ammonium nitrogen fertilizers, and those that only melt without ammonia smell may be nitrates; if the fertilizer particles on the iron sheet do not melt or jump, but have a sour or bone smell, they may be phosphate fertilizers. The second method is to dip the saturated potassium fertilizer solution on the wire ring, burn it on a high-temperature flame, and observe the flame color, but it is difficult to distinguish the flame colors of potassium and sodium. However, if you encounter inferior potassium fertilizers outside the routine on the market, such as small pieces or powders of potassium feldspar that have not been purified, you can only determine the content of soluble potassium through chemical analysis. The combustion method alone can only be qualitative, not quantitative, that is, it can only distinguish the true and the false, but not the superior and inferior. Therefore, when farmers choose to buy fertilizers, they should go to regular sales outlets to avoid being deceived.

Potassium sulfate is a common inorganic salt with the chemical formula K2SO4. Its solubility is affected by many factors, such as temperature, pressure, and solute interactions.

Solubility is closely related to temperature. Generally, as the temperature increases, the solubility of potassium sulfate will also increase. According to literature data, at room temperature (about 25), the solubility of potassium sulfate is about 11.5 grams per 100 milliliters of water. As the temperature rises to 100 degrees Celsius, the solubility is about 110 grams per 100 milliliters of water. It can be seen that the solubility of potassium sulfate at high temperature is much greater than that at room temperature.

Since potassium sulfate is an ionic compound, it will decompose into ionic forms of K+ and SO4-2 when dissolved in water. This ion dissociation process is endothermic. Therefore, solubility is also related to solute interactions. Because of this characteristic, potassium sulfate can be used as an ice de-icing agent, absorbing heat in the process of combining with ice, lowering the melting point of ice, and accelerating melting.

The properties of the solvent will also affect the solubility of potassium sulfate. For example, if ammonia water is used as a solvent, potassium sulfate can react with ammonia water to form ammonium sulfate. Therefore, the solubility of potassium sulfate also depends on the composition of the solvent.

The solubility of potassium sulfate is most closely related to temperature. As the temperature increases, the solubility will also increase. At the same time, other factors such as the properties of the solvent will also have a certain impact on its solubility. The high solubility of potassium sulfate makes it widely used in many fields, such as agriculture, chemical industry, etc.