Posted on 08/13/2016 10:53:00 AM PDT by rey
I know never to mix cleaners and to certainly never mix ammonia and chlorine but many cleaners contain ammonium chloride. Is this not essentially ammonia and chlorine? If not, how does it differ? If it is similar, what is done to it so it doesn't kill the user?
I am obviously not a chemist and have merely an nodding acquaintance with the periodic table, so I would ask that your explanations be simplified as much as possible, as Einstein said, "As simple as possible but no simpler."
Thanks
By the way, I ask this as an employer has asked me to mix two or three different bathroom cleaner, a 409 and scrubbing bubbles and comet.
Mixing ammonia and sodium hypochlorite starts a chemical reaction that produces chloramine vapor. That’s how it’s different. There is also potential for hydrazine to form.
Ask Heisenberg...
Not remembering much on chemistry but mixing the two may well result in chlorine gas - you’ll know as it will kill you if you breathe too much.
Might not be a good idea.
Ammonia plus chlorine forms chloroamine (NH2Cl), a toxicand corrosive gas.
This is just one reason that one should not mix ammonia and bleach, despite each chemical being useful for cleaning.
Also, the solution called “ammonia” is a different compound from ammonium chloride; it is ammonium hydroxide. Mixing it with the sodium hypochlorite solution initiates an electrophilic substitution reaction.
The first is the product of a reaction. The second ones are reactants.
I’d probably not mix the reactants outside a lab.
But that’s just me.
Unless you’re having a ‘hold muh beer’n watch this!’ moment and fancy EMT’s and possibly serious injury or death in your future.
http://chemistry.about.com/od/toxicchemicals/a/Mixing-Bleach-And-Ammonia.htm
Having said that, I accidentally picked up the wrong spray bottle while cleaning the bathroom once. I got out of there quick, turned on the fan and didn’t do that again!
People have been killed cleaning cloth diapers from an ammonia (from urine)and chlorine reaction.
He is uncertain
Ammonium chloride is an inorganic compound with the formula NH4Cl and a white crystalline salt that is highly soluble in water. Solutions of ammonium chloride are mildly acidic.
ammonium plu chlorine (mixing of the two) produces nasty gases that are not the same at all
The comedian Gallagher had a bit about a mildew cleaner having a warning to use in well ventilated areas. If it was well ventilated, he reasoned, he wouldn't have a mildew problem.
“There is also potential for hydrazine to form.”
Now that’s racist! Er, um, you know what I mean!
Most people won’t go in the bathroom after you. Just teasing. Thanks for you answer and the link.
Ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) is a “salt”, the result of mixing an acid and a base; the “ammonia” and “chlorine” are chemically combined as two reactive ions.
The original acid would be HCl (hydrochloric acid) and the base NH4OH (ammonium hydroxide). The side-product of the reaction is water (H + OH).
While pure ammonia and chlorine are toxic gases (as is HCl), the salt is a stable white solid.
LOL!
Got to see one of his shows at COMDEX once upon a time, funny guy! :-)
As an aside. I’ve watched several of Gallagher’s shows via tape and he’s mildly funny. A while back he was mad because he didn’t make the list of 100 top comedians. Some of his one-liners were classic like the one mentioned here.
Back in the 80’s one of the maintenance guys at an apartment complex I fixed appliances at mixed a batch of clorox and ammonia in the bathtub. It got him, too.
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