Commercial bleach

[John99]

How is commercial bleach made? I read bleach is made up of components in sea water. Which ones and what other stuff is in there?

How pure is commercial bleach?

Do they add soap?

How safe for humans as far as skin contact and breathing?

When it dries what is left behind in resultant residue?

The reason i want to know is because i use it all the time cleaning up after my critters:o instead of somtehing more toxic.

Thats all i can think of right now but bleach is the third coolest liquid on the planet, after pure water and sea water- IMHO

[Chatha]

I can't remember how bleach is made commercially, you can easily look that up. I do know certain elements are automatic bleaching agents, e.g Chlorine, Oxygen, Florine. Very reactive substances are usually good bleaching agents(halogens), depending on what you want to rid off. There are bleaching solutions for jewelry, cloths, graphites, ceramic. You could make soap by simple saponification(fat and base) and add a dash of these bleaching agents.

[John99]

Should chlorine be on the list ornot?

[Facial]

Bleach is sodium hypochlorite - NaClO, so yes it has elements found in seawater. But I do not know how it is manufactured.

Household bleach usually has concentrations of around 6% (whether it's mole fraction or weight percentage, I don't know). Other cleaners have lesser concentrations, for example, Tilex is 2% bleach. However, 6% is for all purposes maxed out for antimicrobial uses, and easily starts to infringe upon the safety of humans and their furry friends. These also emit caustic fumes.

It's better to use a dilute solution instead. The EPA recommends around two drops of ordinary (6%) bleach to one gallon of untreated water to make it drinkable - this would be around the effective limit, with cleaning solutions significantly higher.

If they added soap, as in sodium tallowate or sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate, you would observe bubbles. I do not recall seeing bubbles in bleach solutions, so I guess there is no soap.

[John99]

Thanks.

[Positron]

Just don't mix it with Hydrochloric acid:D


no really don't do it, you will die:(

[John99]

Thanks for the warning, i may have done just that.

[Positron]

yea, it makes a large amount of chlorine gas, which if breathed will mkae your lungs fill with blood!:eek: and if you just breath a little it eats away the mucus membranes in your nose and you die from a nosebleed!