For my signature assignment I chose to look at many different chemicals in my

home and try to figure out why they have the chemical and physical properties that
they have, and how those properties are visible on a large, real world scale.

Signature Assignment
Soap
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid, which is often used to wash
various items. It is good at washing things because of its
ability to lower the surface tension of water by neutralizing
the hydrogen bonds in water. When dissolved in water the
soap molecules have one end that is polar and one that is
nonpolar. The nonpolar end is what disrupts hydrogen
bonds and it also allows for normally nonpolar molecules to
become dissolved in water (making it good at getting rid of
grease and oils.)

Bleach
Bleach is a solution mostly comprised of the ionic
compound Sodium Hypochlorite (NaOCl). What makes
bleach so great at cleaning and disinfecting because it is a
strong oxidizer (because of the OCl- ion). The NaOCl easily
transfers its highly electronegative oxygen atom, which
helps to break up many organic chemical bonds, such as
those in stains and bacteria.

Windex
Windex is mostly a solution of heavily diluted solution of
water and ammonia along with a small concentration of
detergents. The bottle at my house says it has 1.4%
ammonia (NH3) and .5% sodium lauryl sulfate
(CH3(CH2)11SO4Na). The ammonia is able to help dissolve a
variety of ionic compounds due to the Nitrogen ions being
easily replaced through substitution reactions. This is
because Nitrogen ions have weaker bonds to the hydrogen
than other ions do (this makes concentrated ammonia
caustic). The sodium lauryl sulfate soap, which as covered
before, helps to dissolve grease. These two properties make
it good at cleaning windows without leaving streaks.

Reflection
This course has been extremely eye-opening for me, it has been really cool
learning about this subject because its really easy to apply it to my everyday life in
ways that I didnt originally expect to. I found myself thinking about chemistry
mostly while cleaning my house, a mundane task that allows my mind to wander
while doing it. So in a sense this assignment really just came to me organically; the
assignment here really just wrote itself pretty much.
The first chemical I thought about was soap. This isnt exactly a chemical, but
rather its a whole class of chemicals (theyre salts made from fatty acids). Soap
was actually extremely interesting to study chemically because it doesnt actually
dissolve oils directly, it just changes the physical properties of water. It works by
lowering the surface tension in water by disrupting the hydrogen bonds in water,
which makes it easier to clean grease. Its a really cool case where a physical
property of something really matters.
The second chemical I thought of was bleach, and I thought of it while I was
scrubbing the tile in my entryway with bleach. While doing this I wondered what
made bleach so effective at getting rid of gunk. The answer turned out to be that it
is a powerful oxidizing agent because its hypochlorite ion easily gives up its oxygen
atom, which makes it very reactive and highly corrosive in large quantities. Luckily
for me the bleach I was using wasnt strong enough to eat through my skin; it was
only enough to irritate my skin if I werent using gloves at the time.
The last chemical I chose I really had no idea about. It was Windex, which I
found out was actually a heterogeneous mixture of chemicals, including a small
amount of perfume to give it its distinctive scent. The two main ingredients were a
soap called sodium lauryl sulfate, and ammonia. Ammonia is able to easily dissolve
nitrates/ites along with many other ionic compounds. This property makes ammonia
very caustic, and it evaporates quickly making it good for cleaning windows without
leaving streaks.
So if both bleach and ammonia are good at cleaning they would be even
better if added together, right? Wrong. Mixing ammonia and bleach can have
disastrous consequences and it can react to form a variety of deadly compounds
like Hydrochloric acid (HCl):
Then the HCl reacts with the bleach to form deadly chloramine gas (and also sodium
hydroxide):
NaOCl + NH3 H2ClN + NaOH
They can also react to produce chlorine gas (which is also deadly):
2NaOCl + 2NH3 --> 2NaONH3 + Cl2

There are also many other volatile compounds that can be produced from these two
chemicals being mixed, but it all depends on the ratios of the bleach and ammonia
being mixed.
When handling these chemicals it is so important to treat them with respect,
because even small amounts of these gasses can cause extreme irritation of the
lungs and mucous membranes, and can even lead to death. Its important to know
about the chemicals that youre using and how they react.