what’s the difference between washing clothes (or anything else) with bleach vs vinegar vs detergent?
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Chemically these are VERY different compounds. Laundry detergent is a mixture of compounds that is designed to remove stains, bacteria, and bodily fluids from clothing. This is a mixture of enzymes and detergents that will bind to dirt and filth on your clothes, and help them wash away in the rinse cycle. The stains and grime won’t rinse out with water alone, so the detergents act as a sort of tether molecule to help the stain bind with the water and rinse out.
Vinegar is an acid, specifically acetic acid. This will kill most odor causing bacteria (in high enough concentrations), but will not remove most stains. Acetic acid doesn’t have the same tethering capacity that detergent has.
Bleach is a specific kind of cleaning compound, called hypochlorite. It works differently than classic detergent, as instead of creating the tether to remove the stain it, it chemicaly changes the stains to make it invisible. This is what is known in chemistry as a very strong oxidizer, which means it is VERY good at making a specific kind of chemical reaction happen: an oxidation-reduction reaction (redox for short). At its heart, a redox reaction means that the oxidizer, the bleach, is stealing an electron from the compound being reduced (the stain). This chemicaly alters the compound causing the stain (let’s say chlorophyll in a grass stain), and this chemical change in the stain changes the way the compound reacts with light. In essence, what we’ve done is turn the stain invisible instead of removing it!
Chemically these are VERY different compounds. Laundry detergent is a mixture of compounds that is designed to remove stains, bacteria, and bodily fluids from clothing. This is a mixture of enzymes and detergents that will bind to dirt and filth on your clothes, and help them wash away in the rinse cycle. The stains and grime won’t rinse out with water alone, so the detergents act as a sort of tether molecule to help the stain bind with the water and rinse out.
Vinegar is an acid, specifically acetic acid. This will kill most odor causing bacteria (in high enough concentrations), but will not remove most stains. Acetic acid doesn’t have the same tethering capacity that detergent has.
Bleach is a specific kind of cleaning compound, called hypochlorite. It works differently than classic detergent, as instead of creating the tether to remove the stain it, it chemicaly changes the stains to make it invisible. This is what is known in chemistry as a very strong oxidizer, which means it is VERY good at making a specific kind of chemical reaction happen: an oxidation-reduction reaction (redox for short). At its heart, a redox reaction means that the oxidizer, the bleach, is stealing an electron from the compound being reduced (the stain). This chemicaly alters the compound causing the stain (let’s say chlorophyll in a grass stain), and this chemical change in the stain changes the way the compound reacts with light. In essence, what we’ve done is turn the stain invisible instead of removing it!
Chemically these are VERY different compounds. Laundry detergent is a mixture of compounds that is designed to remove stains, bacteria, and bodily fluids from clothing. This is a mixture of enzymes and detergents that will bind to dirt and filth on your clothes, and help them wash away in the rinse cycle. The stains and grime won’t rinse out with water alone, so the detergents act as a sort of tether molecule to help the stain bind with the water and rinse out.
Vinegar is an acid, specifically acetic acid. This will kill most odor causing bacteria (in high enough concentrations), but will not remove most stains. Acetic acid doesn’t have the same tethering capacity that detergent has.
Bleach is a specific kind of cleaning compound, called hypochlorite. It works differently than classic detergent, as instead of creating the tether to remove the stain it, it chemicaly changes the stains to make it invisible. This is what is known in chemistry as a very strong oxidizer, which means it is VERY good at making a specific kind of chemical reaction happen: an oxidation-reduction reaction (redox for short). At its heart, a redox reaction means that the oxidizer, the bleach, is stealing an electron from the compound being reduced (the stain). This chemicaly alters the compound causing the stain (let’s say chlorophyll in a grass stain), and this chemical change in the stain changes the way the compound reacts with light. In essence, what we’ve done is turn the stain invisible instead of removing it!
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