Sodium chloride bleaching properties

Let s consider a few of the physical and chemical properties of chlorine. Physically, chlorine is a gas at room temperature about 2.4 times heavier than air. It is yellowish-green in color and has a disagreeable odor. Chemically, chlorine will not burn but will support the combustion of certain other substances. It can be used as a bleaching agent, as a disinfectant for water, and in many chlorinated substances such as refrigerants and insecticides. When chlorine combines with the metal sodium, it forms a salt called sodium chloride (see Figure 4.2). These properties, among many others, help us characterize and identify chlorine. 

Robbins and Reich [3] have described studies relating quantitative combing behavior to the single-hber properties of curvature, friction, stiffness, and diameter for straight, wavy, and kinky hair, aU treated with a shampoo detergent (sodium lauryl sulfate), a long-chain quaternary ammonium compound (stearalkonium chloride), a commercial pomade (from mineral oil and petrolatum), and a hair bleach (peroxide/persulfate system). 

Although the industrial production of chlorine and sodium and calcium hypochlorites already started in 1785, it was not before the first half of the 19th century that the deodorizing and disinfecting properties of chlorine and hypochlorites were detected and led to the use of chloride of lime in hospital wards. Before that time chlorine and hypochlorites were used in textile bleaching. In 1881 Robert Koch demonstrated scientifically the microbicidal effect of hypochlorites by exposing pure cultures of bacteria to chlorine compounds. Thirteen years later Traube proved that hypochlorites can be used successfully for the purification and disinfection of water. 

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