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Topic: Amonium Chloride as anticeptic  (Read 2295 times)

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Offline pcm81

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Amonium Chloride as anticeptic
« on: March 20, 2020, 03:52:51 PM »
With current COVID situation and the sqeeze on antiseptic products i am wondering if i can use amonium chloride salt to make my own antiseptic solution. Ammonium is a potent antiseptic, but the chloride ion in ammonium chloride makes me wonder if NH4Cl can be used as general purpose antiseptic? If so, should it be like 1% solution or some other concentration? Can it be used on skin or just surfaces?

Offline Enthalpy

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Re: Amonium Chloride as anticeptic
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2020, 09:00:41 AM »
Sorry not to answer exactly your question... As a disinfectant, not on the skin, so-called "percarbonate"
https://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=103403.0
is more harmless than others (especially less than hypochlorite), abundant, cheap - often under a different name.

I get much of it on my skin when cleaning the shower walls and notice no adverse effect.

Offline pcm81

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Re: Amonium Chloride as anticeptic
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2020, 10:12:01 PM »
Sorry not to answer exactly your question... As a disinfectant, not on the skin, so-called "percarbonate"
https://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=103403.0
is more harmless than others (especially less than hypochlorite), abundant, cheap - often under a different name.

I get much of it on my skin when cleaning the shower walls and notice no adverse effect.

Thanks for recommendation.
I just mixed up a batch of 1% by mass of NH4Cl with addition of 1% by volume of Ethanol and 1% by volume of Isopropanol.
The manager at my department wants to do "regular" cleaning of door knobs etc and as of now they are using a dilute-ish solution of bleach from our cleaning staff and they don't like the smell. It is probably more concentrated than needs to be.

I do have some sodium percarbonate so could mix up a solution of that... The percarbonate results in H2O2 disinfection, while my current solution would fall under Quats (quaternary ammonium compounds).
From what i read, Quats are less aggressive, but more stable than chlorides, which are less aggressive than alcohols, which are less aggressive than peroxides. However Quats are more stable in solution and are less irritating then the rest, hence do not require special training for use. The intended application  is to wipe down surfaces every 4 hours or so.

What concentration of sodium percarbonate would you suggest?

Offline pcm81

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Re: Amonium Chloride as anticeptic
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2020, 01:37:36 AM »
CDC has published a list of approved disinfectants for COVID-19. Here is the list: https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars-cov-2
If it is sorted by "contact time" the fastest acting ones have Quaternary ammonium as the active ingredient.
Which brings me to my next question: "Would ammonium ion have similar effects as Quaternary ammonium?
Can Quaternary ammonium be created by combining ammonium chloride with some organic compound without high tech processing mechanisms?
According to MSDS sheets the most commonly used Quaternary ammonium is Benzalkonium chloride (Alkyl (C12 40%; C14 50%; C16 10%)  dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/ppls/005813-00073-20190506.pdf), but it seems to be difficult, somewhat pricey, to obtain for bulk use:
https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sial/12060?lang=en&region=US&cm_sp=Insite-_-prodRecCold_xviews-_-prodRecCold10-3

Thanks

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