Eli5: Why chemicals in products, like shampoo or cleaners, don’t go reaction among themselves and form whole different compound?
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Lots of reasons depending on the chemicals in question.
In some cases, the ingredient is inert and just doesn’t react. In other cases there is a reaction of sorts, which is desired. In still other cases, the ingredient in question is already the product of two or more other components.
In the end, too, there could be active reagents that simply don’t have anything else in the product with which they react.
Remember, too, that in a compound chemical, the specific makeup of the compound may inherently not react with other things because of makeups. For instance, hydrogen may react with something, but hydrogenated so and so will not because the H atoms are already bound with whatever they’re in.
A good way to see the last point is the common analogy of sodium and chlorine. Elemental sodium is HIGHLY reactive to water. Elemental chlorine is highly toxic. Sodium chloride is table salt and provides us with necessary nutrients for proper human function.
And lastly, some compounds may be off-handed (right instead of a natural left or left instead of a natural right), which often gives them similar or identical properties, but makes them unable to react with another compound as they might in their natural handedness. This is incredibly common in pharmaceuticals.
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