This cleaning cupboard staple tears through proteins, destroying bacteria and viruses in minutes
WORDS LAURA MEARS
Household bleach is a bactericide; it kills bacteria on contact. It’s one of the cheapest and most powerful microbe busters on the planet. But how does it work? The bleach under your sink is a solution of sodium hypochlorite, which has the chemical formula NaClO. That means that each molecule contains one sodium atom, one chlorine atom and one oxygen atom. In water it produces hypochlorous acid (HOCl), which can steal electrons from other molecules. It uses this ability to attack bacteria and viruses, breaking their proteins apart and splitting them open.