Meaning & use
chromate
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountablechemistry
A salt or ion made of chromium and oxygen, usually containing the group CrO4, often yellow and used in pigments and metal coatings.
Grammar: Countable for a particular compound: lead chromate; uncountable for the substance in general.
Patterns
- potassium chromate
- a chromate of something
Potassium chromate forms bright yellow crystals that dissolve in water.
The pigment contains lead chromate, so it must be handled with gloves.
Workers exposed to chromate dust need regular health checks.
Word forms
| plural | chromates |
|---|
Common combinations
- potassium chromate
- Potassium chromate is used as an indicator in some titrations.
- lead chromate
- Old road paint often owed its yellow color to lead chromate.
- chromate coating
- A chromate coating protects the zinc surface from rust.
- hexavalent chromate
- Hexavalent chromate is strictly regulated in industrial waste.
- chromate pigment
- The painter avoided any chromate pigment in the children's art kit.
Word family
Commonly confused: chromate or chromatic?
chromate vs chromatic
Chromatic relates to color or, in music, to notes a semitone apart. Chromate is a specific chemical compound and has nothing to do with scales.
Practice
Which substance is a chromate?
Choose one answer.
A chromate contains the chromium-oxygen ion, as in potassium chromate. The other salts contain chloride, carbonate or nitrate ions instead.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “chromate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.