What is Potassium Nitrate?

Question

What exactly is it and where can it be found in?

Answer 1

KNO3, aka saltpeter

You should purchase it from a chemical supply catalog, and because it is a strong oxidizer, you should exercise caution.

If you're trying to make gunpowder or something, I wouldn't want you to have an oxidant.

Answer 2

Potassium Nitrate:
The chemical compound potassium nitrate is a naturally occurring mineral source of nitrogen, but makes up the critical oxidizing component of gun powder, was necessary for burning fuse technologies including slow matches and since it readily precipitates, was widely "harvested" since the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern era through the 19th century from urine from which it was forced to crystalize in various odiferous ways. It is a nitrate with chemical formula KNO3.
Its common names include saltpetre (from Medieval Latin sal petrae: "stone salt" or possibly "Salt of Petra"), American English saltpeter, Nitrate of potash and nitre. The name Chile saltpetre is also applied to sodium nitrate, which while related to explosives as well, is a very different compound.

Its details can be found In:
References
^ a b Does saltpeter suppress male ardor?
^ Instructions for the Manufacture of Saltpetre, Joseph LeConte, 1862
^ Potassium containing toothpastes for dentine hypersensitivity

Answer 3

It's exactly what it is, the chemical formed by potassium ion and nitrate ion. You can make it from KOH and HNO3, but for the home amateur, you can pretty well forget it. Since it is used in gunpowder, its sales to the public are restricted.

Answer 4

It is a salt. An white ionic crystalline solid, soluble in water and containing the [K]+ (potassium) and [NO3]- (nitrate) ions. it was formaly known as saltpetre and is used in fertilisers and gunpowder

Answer 5

it is known as saltpeter, a compound found in gunpowder.
it can be made from bat guano