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Glite Dictionary
persulfate

persulfate

1 9.3
A chemical used to bleach hair and make other chemicals react
  • noun
  • /pərˈsəlˌfeɪt/
  • Specialized
: persulfato
  • The laboratory prepared a persulfate solution to test its efficacy in removing organic contaminants.

Examples

  • Copper is etched with ammonium persulfate solution in a spin/spray tool.

    Academic text (1998)

  • The chemist used persulfate as a strong oxidizing agent in her experiment.

  • The Model 1010 TOC Analyzer uses persulfate oxidation methodology for analyzing samples containing 2 ppb to 10,000 ppm of organic carbon.

    Academic text (1997)

  • After adding persulfate to the mixture, the reaction produced a significant amount of gas.

Surface Forms

persulfate singular
persulfates plural

Morphology

persulfate = sulfate (semi-transparent) = per + sulfate

The word is built transparently from the chemical base 'sulfate' plus the prefix 'per-', but the specialized oxidizing-chemistry meaning is not fully predictable for most learners.

Etymology

The word persulfate breaks into per- and sulfate, and in chemistry per- means 'extra' while sulfate comes from sulfur, the element. So a persulfate is a sulfate with extra oxygen, which is why it is a very strong chemical used to start reactions like bleaching.