A possible chemical reason that this experiment yielded less than 100% cyclohexanone was due to the spontaneous decomposition of sodium hypochlorite, 2NaOCl = 2NaCl + O2, which decreased the amount of reactant present in the initial reaction when hypochlorous acid was formed, which was the oxidizing agent required to oxidize cyclohexanol into cyclohexanone. Sodium hypochlorite decomposed into O2 and NaCl due to a multitude of factors such as exposure to high temperatures, prolonged storage time or sunlight exposure. If a large enough quantity of the sodium hypochlorite was decomposed to limit the reaction that produced hypochlorous acid, the quantity of cyclohexanone produced may be affected. This would have resulted in a decrease in the production
