Hua化is a suffix which creates verbs from nouns and adjectives. Semantically, it is equivalent to the English suffix ‘-ize’. For example:
Yang-hua 氧-化 ‘oxygen-ize=oxidize’
Jixie-hua 机械-化 ‘machinery-ize=mechanize’
Reference
Li, C. N., & Thompson, S. A. (1989). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar (Vol. 3). Univ of California Press.
