I’ve noticed that if you use bleach on a typical synthetic kitchen sponge, it will almost immediately begin to break up and dissolve, eventually turning into a sort of squashy pulp. My first question is, what is the chemical process here? I assume that the chlorine molecules/atoms dissolved in the bleach somehow attack the polymer molecules in the sponge and break them up, but beyond that I can’t say.
Similarly, I’ve had the bottom fall out of a full tray of cat sand, presumably because it too was cleaned with bleach or a bleach-based cleaning product. Again, I assume the process by which the plastic breaks down is similar to what happens in the sponge, but is that really the case?
And finally, are true sea sponges any better at standing up to bleach?