There’s a lot of new disinfectant products out that are variously labeled “sodium hypochlorite and phosphoric acid”, or “hypochlorous acid”. From chemistry in high school, I remember bad things happen if you mix bleach and acids. And Google tells me that if you mix sodium hypocholorite and phosphoric acid, you get amoung other things, hypochlorous acid.
So are these two types of cleansers the same thing but for some reason they’re labeling the precuser ingrediants rather than the end produce that’s in the bottle? Or are they different? Maybe there’s some component of sodium hypochlorite and / or phosphoric acid left that’s not reacted mixed in with the hypochlorous acid so they feel they have to list it?
A few things I’ve looked up:
A bottle marketed to healthcare professionals as an antispectic during medical pocedures.
A bottle marketed as for ear piercing aftercare
Another bottle marketed for ear piercing aftercare. Says ingrediants are sodium hypochlorite and phosphoric acid. Elsewhere on their site they claim that it’s “hypochlorous acid made from sodium hypochlorite and phosphoric acid”.
Product on Amazon marketed for Acne and Eczema, says it’s “hypochlorous acid” without listing sodium hypochlorite and phosphuric acid.
Inspiration for this question was my niece’s family were visiting over Christmas break, one of the kids knocked over and spilled her bottle of the Claire’s stuff on the counter and I was surprised by the faint chlorine smell, so I looked at the bottle. (When my neice got her ears pierced about 10 years ago, she had benzalkonium chloride). Initially I knew sodium hypochlorite was a disinfectant and assumed the phosphoric acid was just to balance the ph so it doesn’t sting when applied to an open wound like a fresh ear piercing. But then I started thinking back to chemistry about how things happen if you mix acids and bases.
As followup questions, is there some reason these products on seemingly extremely basic ingrediants are just showing up now, and is there any scientific basis that sodium hypochlorite / hypochlorous acid heals wounds faster as well as being antimicrobial?