Question

Peyton’s and Ryan’s swimming pool is turning green. They will fix the chlorine generator again, but they need to add shock to clear up the algae in the pool. Commercially available shocks are typically powders containing calcium hypochlorite. The hypochlorite ion forms the active hypochlorous acid when the product is added to water. Household bleach contains sodium hypochlorite, which Peyton and Ryan think should serve the same purpose. Will one gallon of bleach from the dollar store be as effective at generating hypochlorous acid as a one pound bag of pool shock?

Answer 1

Bleach is Sodium hypochlorite --- NaOCl

Pool bleach is calciumhypochlorite --- Ca(OCl)₂

_{Gram molecular wt. of NaOCl is 74.5gm}

Gram molecular wt. of Ca(OCl)₂ is 13gm.

1gallon =378.554gm

1pound = 453.5gm

Now, 74.5 gm gm of NaOCl has 51.5 gm of OCl^- ions

378.4gm ------------------------ ?

ans---- 2616.8gm =2.6168kg.

Similarly, 143 gm of Ca(OCl)₂ has 103 gm of OCl^-ions

453.5 gm has----------------- ?

ans---- 326.64 gm =0.32664kg.

So, One gallon of bleach is as effective as one pound bag of pool shock