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Home > Curriculum Support > High School / Senior High > Chemistry 3rd Edition > What is sodium hypochlorite (in bleach), and what happens when it is mixed with ammonia?
What is sodium hypochlorite (in bleach), and what happens when it is mixed with ammonia?
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The “hypo” prefix is really just a way of telling you how many oxygen atoms are in sodium hypochlorite. It means only one oxygen atom. Thus, sodium hypochlorite is NaOCl. That’s the main ingredient in bleach. The “hypo” distinguishes this chemical from sodium chlorite, which is NaClO2.

 

When you mix bleach with ammonia, the sodium hypochlorite reacts with the ammonia to produce a toxic gas, chloramine (NH2Cl). The full chemical reaction is:

 

NaOCl + NH3 –> NH2Cl + NaOH

 

The gas is toxic and should not be inhaled.

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