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Chemicals >> Oxidizing Agents

Sodium Hypochlorite, Bleach, NaOCl

Sodium hypochlorite is an inexpensive, strong oxidizing agent, that is used as disinfectant and bleaching agent. It is unstable as a solid, but solutions of up to 40% are commercially available that contain NaOH and NaCl as byproducts of the preparation:

2 NaOH + Cl2 → NaCl + NaOCl + H2O

Hypochlorite solutions liberate toxic gases such as chlorine when acidified or heated. The reaction with ammonia or with substances that can generate ammonia can produce chloramines which are also toxic and have explosive potential.

Name Reactions


Jacobsen Epoxidation

Recent Literature


TEMPO-derived reagents tagged with multiple perfluoroalkyl chains and triazole moieties promote the oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes in organic solvent/water mixtures with reaction rates comparable to homogeneous TEMPO reagents, but can be easily recovered by liquid/emulsion filtration.
A. Gheorghe, T. Chinnusamy, E. Cuevas-Yańez, P. Hilgers, O. Reiser, Org. Lett., 2008, 10, 4171-4174.


The use of NaClO/TEMPO/Co(OAc)2 enabled a benzylic oxidation of alkyl arenes to yield various aromatic aldehydes and ketones in very good yields. The reaction reactivity, selectivity, and scope of the reaction were investigated.
C. Jin, L. Zhang, W. Su, Synlett, 2011, 1435-1438.


A general procedure for the osmium-catalyzed dihydroxylation of various terminal and internal olefins using bleach as cheap oxidant yields the corresponding cis-1,2-diols in the presence of dihydroquinine or dihydroquinidine derivatives (Sharpless ligands) with good to excellent chemo- and enantioselectivities under optimized pH conditions.
G. M. Mehltretter, S. Bhor, M. Klawonn, C. Döbler, U. Sundermeier, M. Eckert, H.-C. Militzer, M. Beller, Synthesis, 2003, 295-301.


Promising, dual-functioning chiral catalysts for the highly enantioselective epoxidation of α,β-unsaturated ketones gave epoxy chalcones in excelllent yield and high enantioselectivity using 13% NaOCl as oxidizing agent in toluene under mild phase-transfer conditions.
T. Ooi, D. Ohara, M. Tamura, K. Maruoka, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 6844-6845.


Readily available Mn(III) complexes catalyze alkene epoxidation by bleach in good yields. A highly enantioselective epoxidation catalyst was developed through a logical sequence of ligand modifications.
E. N. Jacobsen, W. Zhang, A. R. Muci, J. R. Ecker, L. Deng, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1991, 113, 7063-7064.