[Parathormon]

Hi, I am struggling with making clear one-phase solution as a hand sanitizer based on isobutanol;

I read about 45% isobutanol, 10%glycerin and water, but in practice it crashes into two phases after couple hours...

Do You have any Idea if it is possible to make one-phase stable mixture with low cost and non-toxic materials?

I used deionised water to lower its polarity...


Propylene glycol maybe?

[Enthalpy]

Just try several small non-toxic alcohols, like 1,2 and 1,3 propanediol, yes. There are very few, and I guess you want to avoid isopropanol and ethanol.

45% isobutanol suffice for a disinfectant?

Deionised water is as polar as tap water.

[Parathormon]

Thank u,

Turned out that ethylene glycol (1,2 ethane diol) not works...

Yeah, it is sufficient, as in Fundamental and applied toxicology 36.1 (1997) 62-67 was observed

Longer alkyl primary alcs are more effective in antyseptic properties than lower ones generally

I am afraid that i must do gel formula based on carbomer - it is no chance to mix it as clear solution


As polarity - yeah it was a shorten mind - I meant that I eliminated ions because salted water is harder to mix with alcohols even methyl ethyl or propyl

[Enthalpy]

I'm relieved that ethylene glycol doesn't work, because it's a poison. Better a few viruses on your hands than that.

Keep your ethylene glycol out of reach of pets. Dogs drink it because it's sugary and they die of it.

There are few small alcohols and diols. You can try all available ones that are no poisons. Maybe glycerine and ethylene glycol have too few C per OH.

Or would a strongly asymmetric diol disinfect as well as or better than isobutanol? It would mix better with water too.

[Parathormon]

I know its toxic; i just tried it to simulate diols that You proposed, because i dont have them now


I tried also carbomer - it is separating...

Not good.. i bought 15000L isobutanol

I must do something with it.. next tries:

-polyvinyl pirrolidone gel
-PEG emulsion
-quaternary ammonium chlorides

[Enthalpy]

You could try more diols. If the number of carbon atoms versus hydroxyls matters to bridge with isobutanol, then ethylene glycol is not an indication for what other diols would do.

The very approximative guesswork is that the four carbons in isobutanol are lipophils (possibly a reason to work against viruses), not hydrophilic, and this makes the mix with water unstable. To bridge isobutanol and water, I'd first seek small alcohols whose proportion of C versus OH is between water and isobutanol.

Ethanol is badly available
1-Propanol maybe
Isopropanol is badly available
Butanol has already as many C per OH as isobutanol, so go on with diols

Ethylene glycol has few C per OH, it will link with itself rather than with isobutanol
1,2 and 1,3 propylene glycol maybe
1,2 and 1,3 and 1,4 butanediol maybe - I'd favour the asymmetric ones
and so on, choosing for toxicity and availability, stopping well before octanediol.

If Merck or an equivalent still delivers where you live, you could order a dozen compounds and try in parallel.

Did you try if glycerine mixes with isobutanol?