Ammonia vs Sodium hypochlorite: what is the difference?

How they differ

This pair matters for one reason: mixing them is a well-known way to make a toxic gas at home. Sodium hypochlorite in water releases hypochlorous acid, and hypochlorous acid reacts with ammonia to form chloramines, which irritate the airways badly and can be dangerous in an enclosed room. Both are common household cleaners in their own right, bleach for whitening and disinfecting and ammonia for glass and grease, and both carry a GHS Danger signal word on their own. Ammonia is the far smaller molecule at 17.03 against 74.44 and is a gas dissolved in water rather than a salt. The reason many cleaning products warn against mixing is this reaction specifically.

Side by side

Common questions

What is the difference between Ammonia and Sodium hypochlorite?

This pair matters for one reason: mixing them is a well-known way to make a toxic gas at home. Sodium hypochlorite in water releases hypochlorous acid, and hypochlorous acid reacts with ammonia to form chloramines, which irritate the airways badly and can be dangerous in an enclosed room. Both are common household cleaners in their own right, bleach for whitening and disinfecting and ammonia for glass and grease, and both carry a GHS Danger signal word on their own.

Is Ammonia bigger than Sodium hypochlorite?

Sodium hypochlorite is the heavier molecule, 74.44 g/mol against 17.03 g/mol for Ammonia. Ammonia is H3N and Sodium hypochlorite is ClNaO.

Which has the lower reported LD50, Ammonia or Sodium hypochlorite?

Ammonia, at 350 mg/kg (oral, rat), against 8,910 mg/kg (oral, rat) for Sodium hypochlorite. An LD50 is one acute animal measurement, and the two here were not necessarily measured in the same species, so it is a data point rather than a ranking of how dangerous either is to a person.