40% or 70% Rubbing Alcohol?
These days, everyone is more aware of the existence of ill-causing microorganisms everywhere. People have become more cautious about taking in food with hands. They want to make sure that their hands are clean, and they do it either by washing with bath soap or sanitizing using rubbing alcohol solutions and gels. Let’s talk about rubbing alcohol as disinfectants. Rubbing alcohol products or brands come in many variants. There are those that have add-on like moisturizers and fragrances. What really matters is the alcohol content. 40% or 70%, which one is better?
Solutions’ concentrations can be expressed in several ways – percent concentration, molarity and molality are the common ones. If you see a label 40% alcohol and the amount is in milliliter (mL), the concentration is in percent concentration by volume. 40% means that for every 100 mL, the product contains 40 mL alcohol. So, for a 70% label, every 100 mL of the product you buy has 70 mL alcohol. If the product is in 250 mL container, a 70% solution would have 175 mL alcohol present. Of course it is the 70% alcohol that is more potent in disinfecting your hands.
Related to %by volume is proof. An 80 proof rum contains 40% alcohol. A 12.4% grape wine is 24.8 proofs. Proof is % times 2.
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Which is a better disinfectant, ethyl or isopropyl alcohol???
Great question there Yul. In terms of efficiency as disinfectants, both are almost equal in effectiveness. However, Ethanol may be used in purely surface-cleaning applications, but isopropyl alcohol can also double as antiseptic and is often used in hospitals.
Read more: Ethanol vs. Isopropyl Alcohol to Disinfect | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6540795_ethanol-vs_-isopropyl-alcohol-disinfect.html#ixzz1798BwFpt