(under subclass 182.12) Subject matter wherein the composition contains material whose sole function is to impart stability to one or more compounds for the purpose of delaying or retarding a chemical change in one or more of these compounds, until such time when one or more of these compounds may under so a subsequent reaction.
(1) Note. This stabilization or inhibition process may occur in any number of ways too numerous, if not impossible to elaborate here. However, some processes may be: coating, encapsulation, impregnation, complexation, or other altered chemicals forms, e.g., salting, hydrogen, bonding, tautomerizing, clathration, etc. It is imperative to point out that the stabilization or inhibition is related to only a chemical change and not to any physical change. Thus, a surfactant added to a composition to form a stable emulsion of a given reactant is not classified in this subclass, whereas the stabilization of a solution of a reactant wherein
said reactant is unstable in the presence of the solvent is properly classified here, etc.
SEE OR SEARCH THIS CLASS, SUBCLASS:
380+, for stabilizing or inhibiting compositions.
186.24, for the addition of (1) a metal salt to stablize H2O2 against decomposition and (2) a third substance e.g. a dye to indicate possible peroxide decomposition by way of a color change.
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS
260, Chemistry of Carbon Compounds, main class definitions, fourth full paragraph for a similar discussion as related to organic compounds. 423, Chemistry of Inorganic Compounds,
265, for a detailed discussion on the use of additives to an inorganic compound wherein the resultant composition is properly classified herein. For example, the addition of a metal salt to stabilize hydrogen peroxide against decomposition would be classified in Class 423, subclass 273.
