Production of household bleach
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Household bleach mainly contains sodium hypochloride, NaOCl (eau de Javel). It is an unstable white powder that dissolves in water to give a yellow stable solution.
It also contains small amounts of NaoH, and . The first method of producing bleach involved a reaction between chloride gas and sodium carbonate (). Later, sodium carbonate was replaced by caustic soda (soda lye), NaOH, a cheaper substance that also made the production more efficient.
In this reaction, is reaction with a solution of NaOH giving a spontaneous reaction:
The raw materials of the reaction, chloride and caustic soda come from the electrolysis of brine.