How to Use perchlorate in a Sentence

perchlorate

noun
  • This was the first testing done for perchlorate in food and water in over a decade.
    — Julia Gomez, USA TODAY, 15 Aug. 2024
  • Bacteria that eat perchlorates might also be used to cleanse the soil.
    — Author: Kenneth Chang, Anchorage Daily News, 13 Jan. 2018
  • The soil is laden in perchlorate, which is known to cause hormone disruption.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 22 Nov. 2024
  • The move is the latest in a more than decade-long battle over whether to regulate perchlorate.
    — Michael Phillis, Los Angeles Times, 5 Jan. 2026
  • Similarly, some small open spaces in the basalts have been filled in with sulfate and perchlorate salts.
    — Scott K. Johnson, Ars Technica, 18 Sep. 2023
  • The perchlorate absorbs the water and forms a salty solution.
    — Sarah Scoles, Discover Magazine, 13 Apr. 2015
  • Martian soil is also full of perchlorates, a toxic chemical that would need to be removed.
    — Tom Brown, Space.com, 9 Jan. 2025
  • Martian soil is rich in perchlorate and other compounds that make growing food difficult.
    — David Kelly, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 June 2019
  • But the surface of Mars is already known to be high in perchlorates, which inhibit plant growth and are toxic to humans.
    — Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
  • Agents found that Dodson had purchased 50 pounds of potassium perchlorate in the spring.
    — John Caniglia, cleveland, 1 Oct. 2021
  • Iranian officials have publicly denied that any sodium perchlorate was stored at the port.
    — Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 27 Apr. 2025
  • First, the agency updated the science to better estimate perchlorate’s risks, but that took time.
    — Michael Phillis, Los Angeles Times, 5 Jan. 2026
  • One potential suspect is perchlorates, which are stable, toxic salts found in the Martian soil.
    — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, 18 Nov. 2019
  • Cells bathed in radiation without the perchlorate experienced just a two-fold fall-off.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 6 July 2017
  • Colonies of bacteria could produce oxygen from perchlorate, the very same chemical that keeps the water from freezing.
    — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 25 July 2018
  • Rovers on Mars have detected a type of salt known as perchlorates in the dirt, which can be toxic for humans if consumed in high enough quantities.
    — Loren Grush, The Verge, 21 Sep. 2018
  • The Mars water would be full of perchlorate salt, which chemically toxic to most Earth lifeforms.
    — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 25 July 2018
  • And again, the liquid involved would be far saltier than Earth's oceans (and the salts are likely perchlorates, which aren't as common on Earth).
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 25 July 2018
  • Because that water irrigates crops and rangeland, perchlorate also taints a variety of foods.
    — Patrick Morgan, Discover Magazine, 3 Feb. 2011
  • This meant that perchlorate may have obscured any evidence of organic molecules that could indicate life.
    — Carmen Drahl, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 May 2023
  • Their Phoenix lander detected high concentrations of a compound called perchlorate in the soil.
    — Joel S. Levine, The Conversation, 8 Sep. 2025
  • On Earth, for example, organisms called halophiles (salt lovers/lickers) would love to live in calcium-perchlorate-land.
    — Sarah Scoles, Discover Magazine, 13 Apr. 2015
  • The device reportedly was made of a cardboard tube filled with a mixture of potassium perchlorate and aluminum powder.
    — Elizabeth Depompei, Indianapolis Star, 27 Dec. 2019
  • That’s because Martian regolith is full of perchlorate, an oxidative compound that stunts plants’ growth and can be harmful to humans.
    — Joanna Thompson, Scientific American, 2 June 2022
  • Sulfur may have helped protect the organics even when the rocks were exposed at the surface to radiation and bleach-like substances called perchlorates.
    — National Geographic, 7 June 2018
  • The soil of Mars, for instance, contains perchlorate compounds that some Earth microbes can turn into chloride and oxygen.
    — Saugat Bolakhe, Quanta Magazine, 17 July 2023
  • If a majority is not met, then the ballot papers will be added to a mixture of potassium perchlorate, anthracene and sulfur to create the black smoke.
    — Callum Sutherland, Time, 3 May 2025
  • Actual soil on Mars contains perchlorates, a poison that causes thyroid problems.
    — Chris Morris, Fortune, 18 Jan. 2018
  • Only a single type of molecule, which could have been produced by the perchlorate reacting with organics, appeared in each sample.
    — Andrew Lawler, Discover Magazine, 22 Nov. 2010
  • While the Moon’s dust is sharp and presents issues like cutting holes in spacesuits, Mars' red dust contains chemicals like perchlorates, which are toxic.
    — Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 5 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'perchlorate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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