Sodium hypochlorite is one of the most common disinfectants used in both domestic and commercial settings and has been included on the environmental protection agency (EPA) list of disinfectants recommended for use against COVID-19. This has resulted in a sharp rise in the production and use of sodium hypochlorite for disinfecting household and workplace environments. While safe handling practices need to be implemented along with the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), there is also a need for quality control to ensure manufacturers stay within the acceptable limits of sodium hypochlorite in domestic and industrial-strength bleaches to limit exposure and damage to humans.

The standard method for the determination of hypochlorite is an iodometric titration which, despite being very useful, requires several chemical reagents and can therefore be time consuming and costly when running many samples. This application brief describes how the PerkinElmer LAMBDA^® 365 UV/Vis spectrometer provides a simple and fast solution for the measurement of sodium hypochlorite within 30 seconds and without the need for several reagents, allowing analysts working in a QA/QC environment to save time and expenditure.