Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of mercaptan.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word mercaptans.

Examples

  • "The odors are usually called mercaptans and when gas escapes, the odor can be 'scrubbed' out of the gas so that when the gas is pooling prior to exploding, the gas is odorless.

    PRWeb - Daily News Feed 2010

  • Friends of the Earth said thousands of people have already been relocated in the region because of sulphur emissions and other highly poisonous chemicals such as mercaptans, which are present at high levels in northern Caspian oil.

    Anger grows across the world at the real price of 'frontier oil' Jon Stibbs 2010

  • Look at me, I fill my office with methane, hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans every day and I am still here.

    Think Progress » Don Blankenship in 2009: It’s ‘very difficult’ to obey ‘nonsensical’ safety rules. 2010

  • He said Trafigura first tried to conceal how dangerous the waste was, then pumped it back on board its tanker and left the Netherlands with hundreds of tonnes of oil residue, contaminated with foul-smelling sulphur mercaptans and toxic hydrogen sulphide.

    Trafigura faces criminal charges over attempt to offload toxic waste 2010

  • Development of South Pars is Iran's largest energy project, already having attracted over $15 billion in investment, but development has been delayed by various problems - technical (i.e., high levels of mercaptans - foul-smelling sulfur compounds - in the South Pars natural gas), contractual issues (i.e., controversy over buyback arrangements), politics, etc.

    Energy profile of Iran 2008

  • The proteins, which include glutathione, are called "thiols," and sometimes "mercaptans," from the Latin mercurium captans, or literally "mercury capturers."

    David Kirby: See You In (Vaccine) Court 2008

  • Other corrosive substances are elemental sulfur and mercaptans.

    Hydrocarbon chemistry 2007

  • Sweetening processes either remove the obnoxious sulfur compounds or convert them to odorless disulfides, as in the case of mercaptans.

    Hydrocarbon chemistry 2007

  • Sulfur may be present in crude oil as hydrogen sulfide (H2S), as compounds (e.g. mercaptans, sulfides, disulfides, thiophenes, etc.) or as elemental sulfur.

    Hydrocarbon chemistry 2007

  • The ability to taste quinine in a concentration of i part in 2,000,000 shrinks in comparison with the ability to smell mercaptans (the type of substance produced by skunks when those animals are seized with a fit of petulance) in concentrations of i part in 30,000,000,000.

    The Human Brain Asimov, Isaac 1963

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.