Chlorates

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A category of chemical substances that include chlorine and oxygen, commonly utilized in industrial applications as powerful oxidizers for reactions and processes
2. These compounds, which consist of chlorine and oxygen, serve significant roles in manufacturing and environmental contexts due to their oxidizing properties
3. Compounds composed of chlorine and oxygen atoms that act as strong oxidizing agents in various chemical reactions

Etymology: "Chlorates" is simply the plural of "chlorate," a name built in the chemist's usual way: "chloric acid" plus the suffix "-ate," which marks a salt or ester of that acid. Chloric acid is itself named for chlorine, the greenish gas whose name comes from Greek "khlōros," meaning pale green. So the word folds together a colour, a gas and a family naming convention. The "-ate" ending has a longer pedigree than the chemistry. It descends from Latin "-atus," a suffix forming adjectives and nouns, which passed into English in borrowed form and was adopted by chemists to name the salts formed from acids ending in "-ic." Sulphuric acid gives sulphates, nitric acid gives nitrates, and chloric acid gives chlorates, so the pattern is consistent across the whole family of compounds. The plural simply counts several distinct salts of this type, such as potassium chlorate and sodium chlorate, each sharing the same chlorine-oxygen structure but differing in the metal attached.

Synonyms: salts, chlorine compounds