Sodium Percarbonate

About This Product

Sodium percarbonate, CAS number 15630-89-4, is not a true peroxycarbonate but an adduct: sodium carbonate with hydrogen peroxide held in the crystal lattice, conventionally written 2Na2CO3·3H2O2. It is a free-flowing white granular powder, and in water it simply falls apart into soda ash and hydrogen peroxide. That is exactly why it is used. Hydrogen peroxide is the bleach the formulator wants, but a 35 to 50 percent solution is a hazardous, unstable liquid to ship and store; percarbonate delivers the same chemistry as a dry solid that keeps for a year in a sealed bag. Active oxygen content, not assay, is the specification that matters, and 13 percent minimum is the standard commercial figure, equivalent to roughly 27 percent hydrogen peroxide by weight. The soda ash left behind is not a by-product to be tolerated but part of the effect, because it lifts the wash pH into the range where peroxide actually bleaches. Two practical limits follow from the chemistry. It needs water above about 40 degrees Celsius to work quickly unless a bleach activator such as TAED is present, and it decomposes on contact with moisture, heat and transition-metal traces, so coated grades are used where it has to sit alongside enzymes or damp ingredients in a formulated powder. It is used as the oxygen bleach in colour-safe laundry powders and oxygen stain removers, in textile and pulp bleaching, in denture and brewery cleaning, in disinfection and deodorising, and in water treatment and soil remediation. Bio Green Chem supplies sodium percarbonate at 13 percent minimum active oxygen as a white granular powder in 25 kg bags or 25 kg drums, uncoated or coated. It is UN 3378, Class 5.1, an oxidising solid; keep it dry and away from combustibles and reducing agents, and handle to the safety data sheet.