pyrophosphoric acid

9.9

A solid strong acid used in chemistry to make or test other chemicals

noun
/ˌpaɪrəˈfɒsfərɪk ˈæsɪd/

Specialized

: ácido pirofosfórico

Pyrophosphoric acid is often produced by the dehydration of orthophosphoric acid at high temperatures.

Examples

Researchers used pyrophosphoric acid as a reagent in several analytical procedures.
Proper handling is required when working with pyrophosphoric acid due to its corrosive nature.
The laboratory uses pyrophosphoric acid for various experiments.
Can you explain what pyrophosphoric acid is?
Pyrophosphoric acid is often produced by heating orthophosphoric acid to remove water during chemical synthesis.
Due to its corrosive properties, safety precautions are essential when handling pyrophosphoric acid in the laboratory.
In many experiments, scientists utilize pyrophosphoric acid as a reagent for various reactions.

Surface Forms

pyrophosphoric acid singular

pyrophosphoric acids plural

Morphology

pyrophosphoric + acid

This is a highly specialized chemical term where the meaningful element is 'pyrophosphoric', which is not a common word and is not transparently decomposable to a B1 learner (it requires knowledge of technical morphemes like pyro- and phosphoric). Knowing the common word 'acid' alone does not allow a learner to derive the specific meaning or formation process, so the expression is not predictable from its parts for typical learners.

Etymology

Pyrophosphoric acid gets its name from pyro- meaning 'fire' or 'heat' and phosphoric meaning the phosphorus acid. It is formed by heating ordinary phosphoric acid, so the name literally points to 'phosphoric acid made by heat'.