Skip to Content
Merck
CN
All Photos(1)

Documents

Safety Information

06103

Sigma-Aldrich

Potassium hydroxide

technical, ≥85%, powder

Synonym(s):

Caustic potash

Sign Into View Organizational & Contract Pricing


About This Item

Linear Formula:
KOH
CAS Number:
Molecular Weight:
56.11
EC Number:
MDL number:
UNSPSC Code:
12352106
eCl@ss:
38100303
PubChem Substance ID:
NACRES:
NA.21

vapor pressure

1 mmHg ( 719 °C)

Quality Level

grade

technical

Assay

≥85%

form

powder

impurities

≤0.002% heavy metals (as Pb)
≤1.0% K2CO3

pH

~13.5 (25 °C, 5.6 g/L)

mp

361 °C (lit.)

anion traces

chloride (Cl-): ≤1000 mg/kg
sulfate (SO42-): ≤50 mg/kg

cation traces

Fe: ≤20 mg/kg

SMILES string

[OH-].[K+]

InChI

1S/K.H2O/h;1H2/q+1;/p-1

InChI key

KWYUFKZDYYNOTN-UHFFFAOYSA-M

Looking for similar products? Visit Product Comparison Guide

Related Categories

General description

Potassium hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula KOH. It is a strong base and is commonly known as caustic potash. Caustic potash is mainly used for making potassium salts, acid-base titrations, and organic synthesis. Furthermore, KOH can be used as an electrolyte in some fuel cells and alkaline batteries. Potassium hydroxide readily reacts with acids. It is used in various reactions such as nucleophilic, addition, and basic hydrolysis reactions. Additionally, it is employed as a catalyst for aldol-type reactions.

Application

Potassium hydroxide can be used:
  • To prepare KOH treated powder activated carbon, which is used as a catalyst for the synthesis of CNT (carbon nano tube) using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method.
  • As a base in the intramolecular N-arylation of urea′s to form benzimidazol-2-ones.
  • As a catalyst for the synthesis of khellactone-type compounds (10-aryl substituted-9,10-dihydropyrano[2,3-h] benzopyrone-8-ones) via one-pot, three-component (Meldrum′s acid, aryl aldehydes and 5,7-dihydroxy benzopyrone derivatives) reaction.

Pictograms

CorrosionExclamation mark

Signal Word

Danger

Hazard Statements

Hazard Classifications

Acute Tox. 4 Oral - Eye Dam. 1 - Met. Corr. 1 - Skin Corr. 1A

WGK

WGK 1

Flash Point(F)

Not applicable

Flash Point(C)

Not applicable

Regulatory Information

危险化学品

Certificates of Analysis (COA)

Search for Certificates of Analysis (COA) by entering the products Lot/Batch Number. Lot and Batch Numbers can be found on a product’s label following the words ‘Lot’ or ‘Batch’.

Already Own This Product?

Find documentation for the products that you have recently purchased in the Document Library.

Visit the Document Library

Yuewang Huang et al.
Optics express, 23(5), 6780-6786 (2015-04-04)
We demonstrate a novel technique to fabricate sub-micron silicon nitride waveguides using conventional contact lithography with MEMS-grade photomasks. Potassium hydroxide anisotropic etching of silicon facilitates line reduction and roughness smoothing and is key to the technique. The fabricated waveguides is
Rokas Drevinskas et al.
Optics express, 23(2), 1428-1437 (2015-04-04)
Surface texturing is demonstrated by the combination of wet etching and ultrafast laser nanostructuring of silica glass. Using potassium hydroxide (KOH) at room temperature as an etchant of laser modified glass, we show the polarization dependent linear increase in retardance
Aldol condensation in gaseous phase by zeolite catalysts.
Wierzchowski PT and Zatorski LW.
Catalysis Letters, 9(5-6), 411-414 (1991)
Ji-Tai Li et al.
Ultrasonics sonochemistry, 9(5), 237-239 (2002-10-10)
Claisen-Schmidt condensation of acetophenone with aromatic aldehydes catalyzed by pulverized KOH and KF-Al2O3 results chalcones in 52-97% and 83-98% yields respectively in alcoholic solvent under ultrasound irradiation.
Saeid Baroutian et al.
Bioresource technology, 102(2), 1095-1102 (2010-10-05)
In this study, a novel continuous reactor has been developed to produce high quality methyl esters (biodiesel) from palm oil. A microporous TiO2/Al2O3 membrane was packed with potassium hydroxide catalyst supported on palm shell activated carbon. The central composite design

Our team of scientists has experience in all areas of research including Life Science, Material Science, Chemical Synthesis, Chromatography, Analytical and many others.

Contact Technical Service