Talk:Potassium hydroxide

message: Both this page and the NaOH say their compound is more commonly used for biodiesel because it does not clump as much.  They can't both be right.
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Polyfrog (talk • contribs) 12:49, 2004 April 17 (UTC)
:A general comparison of differences in properties between KOH and NaOH may be of interest too.  Perhaps just after the current text that mentions that generally they are very similar.  —DIV (138.194.12.32 (talk) 05:59, 25 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Inconsistency with [[NaOH]]

message: Some of this liguid was leaking from my ENERGIZER Batteries and I was terribly worried.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.203.94.16 (talk) 04:11, 27 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Battery leak 

message: I've begun efforts to bring this article into accordance with the Wikipedia:Manual of Style.--YanA 00:26, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Could somebody please replace all the superscripted hyphens (-) with a proper minus sign (−) =  superscripted ... or possibly a superscript minus sign (⁻) = .  —DIV (138.194.12.32 (talk) 06:10, 25 September 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I checked the article page today for superscripted hyphens, none found. Use of the  template seems to have done the trick. --Gnostic804 (talk) 22:05, 8 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Improvements 

message: === Methanol ===
Sorry, I couldn't find where to make a new category for discussion but I just wanted to ask two questions. Is Potassium Hydroxide will react with Methanol? And What is the maximum solubility of Potassium Hydroxide in Methanol?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marksiqi (talk • contribs) 07:14, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reactivity 

message: Sorry, I couldn't find where to make a new category for discussion but I just wanted to ask two questions. Is Potassium Hydroxide will react with Methanol? And What is the maximum solubility of Potassium Hydroxide in Methanol?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marksiqi (talk • contribs) 07:14, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Methanol 

message: I believe the food section is referring to uses of common lye (sodium hydroxide), not Potassium hydroxide. This section should be deleted or moved. --Superbeecat 05:56, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Both sodium and potassium hydroxides are used, sodium hydroxide prevalently, though. Sometimes, even mixtures of both are used. However, potassium hydroxide is a relevant food industry chemical.--84.163.122.90 04:23, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Food section 

message: Add basicity to properties box, as per Caesium hydroxide.
—DIV (128.250.80.15 (talk) 04:04, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Basicity 

message: Responding to a suggestion that we "clean up" this article...
The current article makes claims that are difficult to verify.  When 750,000,000 kg/y of something is produced, inevitably many niche uses are examined, but Wikipedia is probably not the ideal repository for this kind of factoid collecting. Thus, I am skeptical about the significance of many (most?) of the applications claimed.  I particularly question all of the claimed applications in food industry, I am sure all kinds of strange and fun stuff has been tried and is even useful somewhere, somehow.  The more common NaOH (75,000,000,000 kg/y by my reckoning) is likely confused with KOH, which may be the source of some confusion.  So I wanted to share these thoughts before editing the article.  If anyone has suggestions, please leave a note here.--Smokefoot  00:05, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: If KOH is used interchangeably with NaOH, perhaps all the "interchangeable" stuff should be put at NaOH, with the KOH-specific applications left here (e.g. hygroscopicity, solubility in alcohols). We can of course, put a note that " ... since NaOH and KOH are cheap commodity chemicals with very similar aqueous behavior, they are easiliy substituted for each other." --Rifleman 82 (talk) 05:19, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Claims in the current article (July 5, 08)

message: I'd like to see it mentioned that it is commonly used as a catalyst in the production of biodiesel from vegetable oil.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.100.137.147 (talk) 15:16, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Uses 

message: The current article revision states "KOH sublimes unchanged at 400 °C; the gaseous species is dimeric" which doesn't agree with the melting and boiling points given in the infobox (360 °C and 1320  °C). Either the melting and boiling points are not at 1 atm or the sublimation is in vacuum. I think the latter, because m.p. is confirmed by Aldrich (as 361 C) --Cubbi (talk) 19:01, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  sublimes? 

message: The article's Properties/Solubility and dessicating properties section states "Approximately 121 g of KOH will dissolve in 100 mL of water at room temperature...," but Infobox/Properties/Solubility in water cites "110 g/100 mL (25 °C)". Does the article's statement need some elaboration or does the Infox data need to be updated? (I'm qualified on this subject only as a copy editor.) Gnostic804 (talk) 00:52, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I think there is a typo. Pickering's 1893 article give the solubility as 112 g/100 mL. 147.210.61.171 (talk) 10:45, 3 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Solubility 

message: After first editing it, I moved the following sentence, authored by Dac28 on 4 Nov 2010, out of Niche applications to here and wrote Dac28 for help:
:Potassium hydroxide is also used in a Fyrite device to measure concentrations of carbon dioxide in a volume of air.
Here's why:
# After my action, this section still contains this article's only unsourced statement, and I did not want to add to that count.
# Not knowing what a Fyrite device is or what it does or why it deserves to be mentioned here, I searched WP and found only a photo of a Fyrite tester, authored and uploaded by User:CambridgeBayWeather (who is, BTW, also a WP administrator) and linked only to his/her personal /Weather subpage, in connection with weather equipment and measurement of hydrogen and oxygen. No mention of carbon dioxide or air or KOH in the caption. And I have no idea whether the device in CambridgeBayWeather's photo is what Dac28 has in mind.
# No Fyrite tester article exists and, outside of the present article, there are no other hits on the word Fyrite on WP/en (I didn't search other languages) as of 00:42 CST 08 Nov 2010, and I have no clue what kind of references to look for. Do you think we should mention a device before we can explain it, particularly in the Niche applications section (cf. User:Smokefoot's "Claims in the current article" comments on the present page)?
I'm leaving this in the hope that Dac28, perhaps with CambridgeBayWeather's assistance, can come up with enough of a 'what' and 'how' and 'why' for this Fyrite device to resolve all but concern number one of the above to warrant either reinstating the statement to the article or creating a new article on the device. If not, ... anyone else? (I'm just a copy editor here.)
--Gnostic804 (talk) 07:57, 8 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: http://www.bacharach-asia.com/index.php?lay=show&ac=article&Id=499191&Ntype=3 --Rifleman 82 (talk) 16:02, 8 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  Many thanks, Rifleman 82! Ideal photo on that page, too; looks like the "tester" in CambridgeBayWeather's photo.  All: Here's what I have so far. A "Fyrite device" is a bench-scale, chemical gas analysis instrument « show CambridgeBayWeather's photo » that can analyze a mixed-gas sample for the presence and percentage concentration of either  or , depending upon which of two kinds of fluid is used to charge the instrument. I haven't looked through any of the available Fyrite instrument manuals yet, but the fluid used to analyze for carbon dioxide is probably the one that contains the KOH that Dac28 asserts, right? If so, is a Fyrite instrument an example of a use of KOH that exploits its reactivity with , rather than its properties as a strong base? Also—and correct me if I'm wrong—the name "Fyrite" appears to be neither a trade name nor (I hope) the name of a living person, but is used in a way analogous to "Erlenmeyer flask" and "Bunsen burner." Now, much of this information probably belongs somewhere in WP other than the present article, but no WP page exists for just "Gas analyzer" (instrument) or just "Gas analysis" (unqualified). A WP-wide search for the first subject was not very useful to the objective here, but the same kind of search for the second subject turned up a wealth of possibilities in different kinds of gas analysis methods and technologies. Whilst I try to find one of those appropriate to wikilink to "Fyrite chemical gas analysis instrument" (my current working term), would anyone like to narrow the search by nominating a particular gas analysis|-izer subject page for me to vet first? (As a "filter" for this project, an assumption that I have the chemistry background only of an honors-level U.S. high-school graduate of circa 1960 should give results I can use quickly.) My gratitude in advance for all assistance! --Gnostic804 (talk) 01:26, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: If it's that obscure, maybe it doesn't merit a mention here. I recall that most CO2 sensors use infrared spectrophotometry. --Rifleman 82 (talk) 02:13, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: About  sensors, that sounds right from what I've seen, too. I'm guessing that this thing is something that was in wider use before infrared spectrophotometry became available/affordable. Actually, I see relevance for a small mention here, but very small. --Gnostic804 (talk) 08:49, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

text: I suppose any strong base (LiOH or NaOH) would work. Don't see any considerations apart from price and availability.  Perhaps an extended discussion and/or a redirect from Fyrite to Orsat gas analyzer is appropriate. If you need to stick it anywhere, the section "Reactions with inorganic compounds" may be best. Surprised that IR devices are expensive... $300  for a cigarette-pack sized device. Accuracy, perhaps? --Rifleman 82 (talk) 16:40, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Since NaOH slowly reacts with glass, and since the original components of the Orsat gas analyzer were chiefly glass until the advent of clear plastic substitutes for laboratory glassware, I'm sure that, historically, KOH had to be used, if for no other reason than to prevent frosting of the glass "sight tube" used to visually read the level of the meniscus inside it during measurement. I've now looked at literature (largely German) on the Orsat apparatus from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and have found no mention of the use LiOH in volumetric gas analysis, so I can't speak to that.--Gnostic804 (talk) 00:27, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

text: How tens of thousands of tons are we talking about?  Otherwise it is niche or niche-niche. --Smokefoot (talk) 13:27, 14 June 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: The center component for that color reaction is pyrogallol, and KOH is mostly used as a base.  But I think it's fair comment (and ought to go somewhere in the article) that KOH is less aggessive towards soft glass that in NaOH.  We appreciate your campaign against trivia, but these protracted battles have a way of turning into crusades.  Be aware of the dark side of the force. 128.226.130.48 (talk) 15:44, 14 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Niche applications: Fyrite device 

message: The little chart doesn't mention solubility in water, yet the text does.Longinus876 (talk) 22:59, 20 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Solubility 

message: I was always under the impression that lye was the common name for sodium hydroxide. I've never heard of KOH being referred to as lye.
Is it possible that this is an error? Or are NaOH and KOH BOTH referred to as lye? It seems unusual that two different chemicals would share the same name.
I'm not terribly familiar with the history and naming of NaOH and KOH. But, perhaps somebody more familiar can clear up this confusion.
Thanks in advance.
VoidHalo (talk) 17:09, 20 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lye as an alternative name for KOH?