h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I actually think this article may be the origin of the myth of ammonia and bleach creating chlorine as a matter of fact.

It seems whenever I ask people how they assumed ammonia + bleach = chlorine gas they refer to this article.

However, NaONH3 is not even a real chemical nor is it possible to ever create.
NH3 has all it's bonding positions filled(if following molecular orbital theory), in order to bond with oxygen it would have to be NaONH2, but that again is not even possible because removing a proton from the ammonia would result in a negative ion and so the Na+ would take the oxygens place and sodium does not have 2 bonding positions.

The only possible results of the ammonia and bleach combination are varying amines.
The hypochlorite can actually produce chlorine in the presence of an acid, but the ammonia ensures that the pH will never be acidified enough.
In fact, it pushes the equilibrium so that even less chlorine gas is produced than normal.

If the ammonia does become acidified like NH4+ then the chloride ions would react with it to form the NH4Cl salt, not chlorine gas and so once again the equilibrium would be pushed to consume chlorine gas, not produce it.

It would even seem some schools teach that NaONH3 exists as well which is just ridiculous. Just thought I should clear this up.

Thanks for reading. =)