What's inside household cleaners?
Follow ammonia, bleach and hydrogen peroxide to what each one does when it cleans, then meet three sodas, from the baking soda that lifts a cake to the caustic soda in drain cleaner.
What the marks and numbers mean
- Added by the maker
- Put in by whoever makes the product; an ingredient on a label is marked this way.
- Calculated
- Worked out from the structure (molecular weight, by PubChem).
1. For glass and grease: ammonia
Ammonia
H3NThe sharp, eye-watering smell of window cleaner and cat litter. Made from the nitrogen in air by the Haber-Bosch process, it is where synthetic fertilizer begins.
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Ammonia is the far smaller molecule at 17.03 against 74.44 and is a gas dissolved in water rather than a salt. Dissolved in water, ammonia is alkaline, which breaks up grease, and it evaporates completely, which is why it leaves glass without streaks.
Sources and notes
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- The line on Ammoniafrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- Ammonia: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe maker adds it to glass and grease cleaners.
- The Ammonia vs Sodium hypochlorite comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
- Ammonia: molecular weightcomputedPubChem
2. What bleach is: sodium hypochlorite
Sodium hypochlorite
ClNaOHousehold bleach. In water it releases hypochlorous acid, which destroys the pigments in a stain and the proteins in a microbe.
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Sodium hypochlorite releases hypochlorous acid in water, which is the active destroyer of stain pigments and microbial proteins, and it leaves salt behind.
Ammonia cleans glass and grease and sodium hypochlorite is bleach, and mixing the two makes chloramines, a toxic gas that badly irritates the airways.
Sources and notes
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- The line on Sodium hypochloritefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- Sodium hypochlorite: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe active ingredient of chlorine bleach.
- The Hydrogen peroxide vs Sodium hypochlorite comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
- The Ammonia vs Sodium hypochlorite comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
- Sodium hypochlorite: molecular weightcomputedPubChem
3. Water and oxygen, nothing else: hydrogen peroxide
The pale blue liquid sold as a 3 percent solution for cleaning cuts and bleaching hair. It breaks down into water and oxygen, which is the fizzing.
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Hydrogen peroxide decomposes into water and oxygen and nothing else, which is why it is the one used on fabric and hair where a chlorine smell would be unwelcome.
Hydrogen peroxide breaks down into only water and oxygen, while sodium hypochlorite, household bleach, leaves salt behind and is the stronger disinfectant.
Sources and notes
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- The line on Hydrogen peroxidefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- Hydrogen peroxide: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe active ingredient of oxygen bleach.
- The Hydrogen peroxide vs Sodium hypochlorite comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
- Hydrogen peroxide: molecular weightcomputedPubChem
4. Three sodas: baking, washing and caustic
Baking soda. It releases carbon dioxide when it meets an acid, which is why it lifts a cake and why it fizzes in a glass of vinegar.
Washing soda: the water softener in laundry powder, the flux that lets glass melt at a workable temperature, and a common pH raiser for pools.
Lye, the caustic base of drain cleaner and oven cleaner, and the thing that turns fat into soap. It is corrosive to skin on contact.
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Baking soda and washing soda are both sodium salts of carbonic acid, NaHCO3 against Na2CO3: washing soda has a second sodium where baking soda keeps a hydrogen, and that makes all the difference to how alkaline they are. Heating baking soda in an oven converts it into washing soda, releasing carbon dioxide and water, which is the same reaction that raises a cake. In baking, the carbon dioxide is the point; in cleaning, the alkalinity is.
Sodium hydroxide is caustic soda, strong enough to saponify fat and dissolve hair, which is what makes it the active ingredient in drain cleaner and in soap making.
Sources and notes
- The line on Sodium bicarbonatefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Sodium carbonatefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Sodium hydroxidefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- Sodium bicarbonate: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedSold as baking soda, and added to cleaners.
- Sodium carbonate: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedSold as washing soda, and added to detergents.
- Sodium hydroxide: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe active ingredient of drain and oven cleaners.
- The Sodium bicarbonate vs Sodium carbonate comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
- The Sodium hydroxide vs Sodium bicarbonate comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
Also on the list
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- Acetic acid. The sour molecule that makes vinegar vinegar, and a tang in sourdough.
- Borax. The laundry booster and household cleaner mined from dried lake beds. It is a salt of boric acid and one of the oldest cleaning agents still sold.
- Citric acid. The mouth-watering sourness of lemons, limes, and oranges.
- Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. EDTA, the molecule that grabs metal ions and will not let go. It keeps mayonnaise from going rancid, stops blood samples clotting, and is the antidote in lead poisoning.
- Sodium lauryl sulfate. SLS, the detergent that makes shampoo, toothpaste, and dish soap foam. It irritates skin so predictably that researchers use it as the standard irritant when testing the skin barrier.
- Triclosan. The antibacterial once common in liquid soaps, banned from consumer hand soap in the United States in 2016 for lack of proven benefit.
Sources and notes
- The line on Acetic acidfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Boraxfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Citric acidfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acidfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Sodium lauryl sulfatefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Triclosanfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- Acetic acid: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe acid of vinegar cleaners and descalers.
- Borax: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedSold as a laundry booster, and added to detergents.
- Citric acid: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe acid the maker adds to descalers.
- Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe maker adds it to bind hard water metals.
- Sodium lauryl sulfate: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe surfactant the maker adds.
- Triclosan: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe antibacterial agent the maker adds, now restricted in many products.