potassium carbonate
- noun
- /pəˈtæsiəm ˈkɑːrboʊneɪt/
- Specialized
:
carbonato de potasio
- The chemist mixed potassium carbonate with water.
Examples
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You can find potassium carbonate in many cleaning products.
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The manufacture of glass often involves using potassium carbonate to improve clarity.
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If you are making soap from scratch, you might need potassium carbonate as an ingredient.
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Manufacturers use potassium carbonate in the production of specialty glass.
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The laboratory technician added potassium carbonate to the mixture to increase its alkalinity.
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This cleaning solution contains potassium carbonate, which helps to remove tough stains.
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In soap making, potassium carbonate acts as a key ingredient that enhances the product's lather.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound name simply denotes the salt made from potassium and the carbonate anion, so its meaning (a potassium carbonate salt) is directly and compositionally derivable from the constituents. Chemical naming of this type is systematic and cross-linguistically regular, so a learner who knows 'potassium' and 'carbonate' would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Potassium carbonate may come from old soap and glass makers who made a strong white salt by pouring water through wood ashes in a pot; the ash was called 'potash', which gave the name potassium. The word carbonate shows the salt has 'carbon' and oxygen, so the full name describes a white salt that dissolves in water and is used in glass, soap, and cleaners.
