An active ingredient in common household bleach solutions is most likely to be which of the following?

Question

A) NaCl
B) NaClO
C) NaHCO3
D) Na2SO4
E) HC2H3O2

Please explain why. Thanks.

Answer 1

bleach contains strong oxidizing agents, meaning that it contains ingredients that really want to be reduced(really wants gain electrons) so we look at formal charges and we try to look at trends like the atoms on the right of the Periodic table want to have -charges and atoms on the left have +charges.
NaCl is just salt, everything is fine with this cuz Sodium want to be a +1 and Chlorine a -1
NaClO, this is an interesting specimine. O usually is designated the Ox # first and is almost always a -2 charge then Na is usually a +1 thus in order to balance Cl must be +1. WHOA!! thats not right. Cl wants to be a -1. thus it really really wants to gain 2 electrons to be a -1. this thing will rip electrons away from alot of things. This is a darn good oxidizing agent.
NaHCO3 is just baking soda and everything is balanced out
Na2SO4 is not really very reactive, slightly basic, but is perfectly fine with Sulfur having a +6
HC2H3O2 is acetic acid and I call it CH3COOH because it shows its structure a little better but everything is pretty happy there.
So Sodium HypoChlorite is the right answer.

BONUS* Want to know why bleach makes colors white?
take some colorful compounds like the Chromium Oxides. because it is in the transition metals it doesn't usually lose all of its electrons(remember metals want to be +ions) and those electrons that aren't in filled orbitals allows colors to be made. Chromium makes some green and red colors i think. well when all the electrons are removed from a metal then its orbitals are either completely filled or empty. and that is why they are white. table salt is white because Na doesn't have any electrons in its last S orbital. so you can usually predict if something has full orbitals or partial orbitals purely off what color it is. so what dolor do you think TiO2 is? it is a main pigment in White Vinyl Fences.

Answer 2

Active Ingredient Bleach

Answer 3

B)NaClO (Sodium Hypochlorite)

It contains the ClO- (Hypochlorite) anion which functions as a bleach.

bleaching powder, white or nearly white powder that is usually a mixture of calcium chloride hypochlorite, CaCl(OCl); calcium hypochlorite, Ca(OCl)2; and calcium chloride, CaCl2.

To bleach something is to remove or lighten its color; a "bleach" is a chemical that can produce these effects, often via oxidation. Common chemical bleaches include a solution of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl)

Household bleach, also known as chlorine bleach, sodium hypochlorite (NaClO), has a pH level of 11 and is used in the home for whitening clothes, removing stains, and disinfecting. This is because sodium hypochlorite yields chlorine radicals — oxidizing agents readily reacting with many substances.

Answer 4

The answer is B or Sodium Hypochlorite.

Answer 5

Yeah, my mum used salt on tea stains too! LOL. You can use baking soda and a few drops of vinegar to clean jewellery. It doesn't damage it, just makes it shiny. Salt's also good on mouth ulcers. If you boil up a bunch of fresh rosemary [make sure it's free of lead pollution first], then let it cool, it makes a delightful hair conditioner.

Answer 6

In solution it is often sodium hypochlorite.
"B" I believe is correct.