BASEMETAL

Base metal

In chemistry, the term base metal is used informally to refer to a metal that oxidizes or corrodes relatively easily and reacts variably with diluted hydrochloric acid to form hydrogen. Examples include iron, nickel, lead and zinc. Copper is also considered a base metal because it oxidizes relatively easily, although it does not react with HCl.

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base metal

Noun

  1. Any metal at the lower end of the electrochemical series that oxidizes readily.
  2. The metal to be welded (rather than that used to weld).
  3. A common or inexpensive metal
    1. one that was hoped to be transmuted into a precious metal.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: base metal
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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