Hi JIM.

 1-Mar-04 22:50:00, JIM HOLSONBACK wrote to ALL


 JH> is NaOCl. In the "household bleach" concentration, it is in the
 JH> range of 4 to 5% solution.

 JH> Although that is the way they say they make it at the Clorox
 JH> website, I don't understand this recipe  - - seems like just
 JH> reacting NaOH solution with bubbling Cl2 gas would end up with
 JH> extra hydrogen . i.e.  NaOH + Cl = NaOcl +H

yes that does seem suspicious.

 JH> read - - extra NaOH is used in the manufacture, for stability, and
 JH> to limit the pH to the 13 to 14 range.

if that (pH) were true bleach would dissolve aluminium.

 JH> 1.  If household bleach ends up being just table salt and oxygen,
 JH> why do we have the distinctive odor of Chlorine when we do a
 JH> "sniff" test?

I can't explain that.

 JH> 2.  Is the excess of NaOH from the manufacturing process the
 JH> reason that it feels so "slippery" when we get a bit of bleach on
 JH> our hands and go to rinse it off?

could be. OTOH the household bleach may also contain some detergent...

 JH> 3.  Could any excess  NaOH be a hygroscopic chemical - - that is,
 JH> if there were to be any excess NaOH residue from previous
 JH> bleaching operations to kill mildew before repainting, could that
 JH> be the reason that on the few "rainy days" we've had since the
 JH> underside of my patio deck was bleached down,  that the underside
 JH> of some of the deck rafters has visible moisture accumulating on
 JH> it??

it could,

 JH> BTW, my painter-helper fellow used a "double strength" type of
 JH> bleach solution -

 I use that stuff too, it's available in bulk, and cheap.
 they call it "chlorine" but the chemical is sodiumhypochlorite
(dunno if that's  NaOCl or something different)

 hmm, it seems to me that sodiumchlorite would be NaOCl

 JH> - -- and the visible moisture condensation is occurring on the
 JH> bottoms of only a small percent of those 3x6 or so patio deck
 JH> rafters which support the 1x6 T&G wood deck.

If the rain is bringing NaOH out of the cracks hosing off the
accumulated moisture whoudl reduce the ammount of moisture you see in the
future.

NaOH is wery reactive it's likely that some product of NaOH and the wood is
the hydroscopic chemical, possibly something produce by its reaction with
resins in the wood  -  NaOH is used to strip varnish off wood so it'll
react with resin which is also made of dried sap

Is this moisture a problem?

 -=> Bye <=-
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