Saturday, 17 March 2012

Isopropyl Alcohol

   So I was cleaning the windows today, I know wow right: who would have thought? And curious as I am I couldn’t help but look at the ingredient label. Most of the ingredients sounded completely alien to me, but the isopropyl alcohol seemed familiar, I researched a bit and here it is:

   Isopropyl alcohol is a flammable, colorless liquid with an odor resembling alcohol. it goes with the formula of C3H8O and is also known as Rubbing alcohol (there we go, I should have said that earlier right? Now most of you know what it is). So back on track, it is produced by the hydration of water and propene and is a widely used alcohol. It not only serves as a good solvent of non-polar compounds and evaporates quickly, which explains why it is found in cleaning. Due to its low toxicity it is also used in medicine for disinfection pads or liquids and in the laboratory for DNA extraction, as it doesn’t dissolve it also making it appropriate for specimen preservatives.


   Of course please beware though it isn’t quite as corrosive as other alcohols, it still is irritant for the eyes and mucous membranes. And although the alcohol is used in disinfection, one would not recommend using cleaning products to disinfect wounds, as they mostly contain other chemicals that can be more harmful.

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