Corrosive substance Corrosive substance A corrosive substance is one that will damage or destroy other substances with which it comes into contact by means of a chemical reaction. The word "corrosive" is derived from the Latin verb "corrodere", which means "to gnaw", indicating how these substances seem to "gnaw" their way through flesh or other materials. The word corrosive refers to any chemical that will dissolve the structure of an object. They can be acids, oxidizers, or bases. When they come in contact with a surface, the surface deteriorates. The deterioration can happen in minutes, e.g. concentrated muriatic acid spilled on skin;
Chemical substance regard. A chemical substance may well be defined as "any material with a definite chemical composition" in an introductory general chemistry textbook. According to this definition a chemical substance can either be a pure chemical element or a pure chemical compound. But, there are exceptions to this definition; a pure substance can also be defined as a form of matter that has both definite composition and distinct properties. The chemical substance index published by CAS also includes several alloys of uncertain composition. Non-stoichiometric compounds are a special case (in inorganic chemistry) that violates the law of constant composition, and for