Our Sustainability Report showcases ACI member companies' commitment to increasing sustainability and demonstrating corporate social responsibility. Search CPISI for safety assessment data from publicly available data sources on ingredients used in cleaning products. Bleaches help whiten, brighten and remove stains. Here's how to use bleach on clothes:. Bleach converts soils into colorless, soluble particles which are easily removed by detergents, then carried away in the wash water.
Bleach can also brighten and whiten fabrics and help remove stubborn stains. Sodium hypochlorite bleaches also called chlorine or liquid household bleach are the more powerful laundry bleaches; they disinfect, as well as clean and whiten.
They work on many whites and colorfast washables - but not on wools or silks. Oxygen color-safe bleaches are gentler, working safely on all washable fabrics. They work best in maintaining whiteness, not in restoring it. For Sodium Hypochlorite Bleach , read the label and dilute as directed. For best results, add 5 minutes after the wash cycle has begun to agitate in order to avoid destroying enzymes and fluorescent whiteners in the detergent.
For Oxygen Bleach , add directly to the wash water before the clothes are added. Do not pour powdered bleach directly on wet clothes. Oxygen bleaches are most effective in warm-to-hot water. Mix the soaking agent with water, and then add the item.
Often there is no color change, and the tested item can be safely bleached. You may even find this with the fabric you have selected. Also, it has both a fine tip and a broad scrubber tip, which you can use to control fine lines and other effects.
Note that you will need to thoroughly rinse the fabric when you are finished applying the gel. As the gel rinses into the water, it may bleach other areas of the fabric if the dye is sensitive to bleach. Let the clothes washer complete the cycle to rinse the fabric. Get cleaning tips, product updates, promotional offers and more to your inbox.
Bleach and other disinfectants are not suitable for consumption or injection under any circumstances. People should always read the label for proper usage instructions. The wavelengths that are not absorbed are reflected instead, which results in us seeing those specific wavelengths if they fall in the visible spectrum. Grass, for example, appears green to us because its molecules absorb all wavelengths except in the green color range. Chemical molecules that appear a certain color usually contain chromophores in their chemical structure, which are able to absorb light in the visible wavelength range instead of the invisible light spectrum.
Often times, chromophores are aromatic compounds or molecules containing a series of alternating single and double bonds. However, the question still remains: How can bleach get rid of these color-giving chromophores in the stains? Most household bleaches are based on chlorine and contain sodium hypochlorite NaClO.
This is an oxidizing agent, which causes a reaction to form another chemical compound. During oxidation, the oxidizing agent removes one or more electrons from its reaction partner. This means that when bleach reacts with a "stain molecule" the oxidation reaction changes the chemical structure of the chromophore. The resulting molecule either does not contain a chromophore anymore or the chromophore is no longer able to absorb light in the visible range.
In both cases the reaction product will not show a color, and the stain magically disappears. Want to see for yourself? Then do this activity and watch food coloring turn colorless! Observations and results Were you successful in making all the different colors disappear?
Most likely, yes. All the food dyes are molecules with lots of chromophores in their chemical structure that make them appear blue, red or yellow. When adding three drops of bleach to each color you should have noticed that the yellow solution almost immediately turned colorless after swirling the cup. This is due to the above-mentioned oxidative power of bleach that breaks up chemical bonds and alters the chemical structure of the dye so it is not able to absorb light in the visible spectrum anymore.
The blue and red solutions, however, did not turn colorless right after adding the bleach and stayed a visible hue for quite some time afterwards. The reason for this is that each chemical reaction happens at a different rate.
Yellow reacts very quickly with bleach, which is why you see it turning colorless right away. Blue 1 and Red 3, the dyes in the blue and red solutions, react at a much slower rate. Although the color change did not happen immediately, you should have seen that after a while these colors faded as well. Orange and green, as well as purple, are mixtures of two different colors. Once bleach is added to these solutions, one of the colors in the mixture will react more quickly with the hypochlorite than the other one, which is why one color component disappears and the other one remains visible.
Orange, for example, is a mixture of yellow and red—and because yellow is oxidized much faster, the orange solution turns red. Similarly, the green solution, which is a mixture of blue and yellow, will turn blue after the yellow dye is oxidized. And if you did the extra step with the purple solution, you should have observed that the solution turned blue, since the red dye reacts faster with bleach than the blue dye.
If you measured how long it takes to make each color disappear, you should have found that yellow was oxidized the fastest, followed by red and then blue. One way of speeding up a chemical reaction is adding more of the reactants, which is why the blue and red colors disappear faster if you add more bleach to the solution. Another way of increasing the reaction rate is an increase in temperature. Once you heat up the blue food coloring solution, the color disappears much faster compared to a cold solution even if you add the same amount of bleach.
Cleanup You can dispose of all your color solutions including the ones you added bleach to in the sink. Let the water run for an additional 30 seconds after you pour all the solutions into the sink.
Wipe down your work area with wet paper towels. This activity brought to you in partnership with Science Buddies. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options.
Discover World-Changing Science. Key concepts Chemistry Physics Reaction rate Color Introduction Have you ever wondered why your dirty clothes come out of the washing machine white and clean?
0コメント