Difference between Isopropanol and Alcohol

Recently, isopropanol disinfecting products have attracted much attention and are thought to be worth popularizing. But how are they different from alcohol disinfectants?

Currently, alcohol, as well as isopropanol, is the the most commonly used disinfectant. Alcohol is the main disinfectant used in China while isopropanol is popularized in many other countries. Both of the disinfectants can solidify protein of germs and hence inactivate them. From effective perspective, alcohol and isopropanol have similar effect in preventing germ multiplication and damaging lipophilic germs, such as herpes simplex virus, hepatitis B virus, human immunodeficiency virus.

Alcohol and isopropanol are both volatile. Normally their solution concentration is 75%. There are also varieties of compound alcohol disinfectants to be used for hand skin disinfection. Alcohol, isopropanol and n-propanol are all common components of compound alcohol disinfectants.

1. Application

75% alcohol disinfectant is primarily used to disinfect hand skin. It can also disinfect other objects by immersing or wiping. Medical instruments can be disinfecting by being immersed in or wiped with 70% isopropanol solution.

2. Disinfection

Alcohol: It can kill the reproduction body of germs and fungi spores. But Gram positive bacteria has stronger resistance than Gram negative bacteria to alcohol. And alcohol has no effect on bacteria spores.

Isopropanol: Similar to alcohol, it can kill the reproduction body of germs and fungi spores but has no effect on bacteria spores.

3. Effect

There is little difference between alcohol disinfectant and isopropanol disinfectant in their disinfecting effect, although seriously speaking, isopropanol is a bit stronger than alcohol. Isopropanol molecule has a pair of methyl while alcohol molecule has only one pair. Since methyl can make the molecule more permeable, isopropanol has stronger disinfecting ability than alcohol. This is the only difference between the two kinds of solution, as well as the one of the explanations for someone’s preference to isopropanol. Also, in China, most medical disinfecting pad contains 70% isopropanol as the effective ingredient.

4. How to pack alcohol and isopropanol

5. We can fill the alcohol and isopropanol in big bottle or spraying bottle on bottle filling and capping machine. There is also other package such as alcohol pad which will pack non woven and fill alcohol or some sterilizing gel into the sachet,which is realized on our alcohol pad wet tissue packing machine.

Both package are acceptable, just choose the one convenient and suitable for your market.