On Wednesday, April 10, 2013 9:12:55 AM UTC-4, wrote:
You asked for the specific chemical reactions, here is

one source from a PHD:



http://chemistry.about.com/od/toxicc...nd-Ammonia.htm


Yup, I read that site. Shockingly poor information.



Chemicals Involved

Note that each and every one of these chemicals is toxic, except for

Yup. Toxic. But found in very low concentrations. Why even mention it, if you're not going to include any real information?



Likely Chemical Reactions from Mixing Bleach and Ammonia


Likely? What kind of language is that, from a supposed chemist? Do the math. Write the equation, show the change in Gibbs energy, you can predict exactly what reaction will occur. Not which ones are likely.

The bleach decomposes to form hydrochloric acid,

Yes. The necessary first step, without which all the following steps fail. What causes that? Under what conditions will it occur? Nothing but silence from this supposed PhD chemist. Because she really doesn't know, she's just passing on urban legend and adding some plausible pseudoscience to it.. What does "decompose" mean, anyway? Is that a chemical term? We learned dissociate in about 6th grade. No real chemist would say decompose. A mortician or a musician, maybe.

Hint: the equilibrium will shift to HCl at low pH, usually below 5. Ammonia is about 11.

No point in continuing. Even a casual reading of that web article shows the kind of sloppy writing and sloppy thinking not used in real science.

Not that I'm a real scientist.

Toilet bowl cleaners are acid, in the pH range of 2 to 3. That's the real cause of most of the reported accidents. If ammonia was even present it was usually a coincidence. But this supposed chemist didn't know about bowl cleaners.