Potassium Permanganate - High Purity Crystals, Deep Purple Oxidizing Agent With Disinfectant Properties

Potassium Permanganate (KMnO4) is a chemical compound of manganese, potassium and oxygen. The salt is also known as "permanganate of potash" and "Condy's crystals". In this salt, manganese is in the +7 oxidation state. The permanganate ion is a strong oxidizing agent. It dissolves in water to give deep purple solution, evaporation of which gives prismatic purple-black glistening crystals. It has a sweet taste and is odourless.

In 1659, German chemist J.R. Glauber, fused a mixture of the mineral pyrolusite and potassium carbonate to obtain a material that, when dissolved in water, gave a green solution potassium manganate (K2MnO4) which slowly changed colour to violet to form potassium permanganate and then finally red. This report has gone down in history as the first description of the production of potassium permanganate.

Around two hundred years later, London chemist Henry Bollmann Condy had an interest in disinfectants, and marketed several products including ozonised water. He found that fusing pyrolusite with Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and dissolved it in water produced a solution with disinfectant properties. He patented this solution, and marketed it as Condy's Fluid. Although effective, the solution was not very stable. This was overcome by using Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) rather than NaOH. This was more stable, and had the advantage of easy conversion to the equally effective Potassium Permanganate crystals.