Scientific cafe
oral or injection of disinfectant is nonsense
Remember the days of shopping for alcohol and 84 disinfectant online every day during the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic? For ordinary people, diligent online shopping is the main method of obtaining protective equipment, but the brain circuits of scientists are different. Associate Professor Deng Xudong of the School of Life Science at Northwestern Polytechnical University thinks: lack of disinfectant? I develop one myself!
Wearing goggles, a left-hand beaker, and a right-hand dropper, in February, Deng Xudong groped for a new formula of compound quaternary ammonium salt disinfectant in front of a small laboratory developed at home. Why do you want to do this? He said: "This type of disinfectant is used more in foreign countries. During the epidemic in Germany, the domestic price was even more than 1,000 yuan a bottle. I think it is better to develop a formula for everyone to use, and it is more effective than foreign products. Better, and also contribute to the fight against the epidemic." This project was successfully included in the school's "new coronary pneumonia epidemic prevention and control emergency research project".
The research and development of disinfectant does not actually belong to Deng Xudong's "bank". His specialty is biomedical polymer, and the disinfectant is more in the field of daily chemical industry. But scientific thinking can make people quickly become "experts" in many situations. He first charged himself-to study the composition, formula and principle of disinfection of various types of disinfectants.
84 Disinfectant is mainly disinfected by the strong oxidizing property of sodium hypochlorite to "destructively attack" viruses and bacteria. The reason why alcohol can sterilize is because it can denature proteins and dehydration, destroying the structure of viruses and bacteria. But at the same time, they all have some limitations. For example, alcohol is flammable and is not suitable for large-scale disinfection. While 84 disinfectant can kill viruses, it can also cause strong irritation to human skin and respiratory tract. Therefore, Deng Xudong focused on the compound quaternary ammonium salt.
He introduced that the double-stranded quaternary ammonium salt is the nemesis of the enveloped virus, which is inactivated by attacking the outer envelope of the virus to destroy its structure. Coronavirus, H1N1 influenza virus, etc. are all enveloped viruses.
The quaternary ammonium disinfectant is an aqueous solution, so it is non-flammable, safer than alcohol, and not as irritating as 84 disinfectant, but our demand is to be friendly to people and the environment and to be spicy against viruses, so Deng Xudong needs to "compound" various quaternary ammonium salts to prepare a "mild" and effective disinfectant.
After the theoretical construction was completed, Deng Xudong started the experiment at home, mainly to match all kinds of active ingredients in proportion. "In fact, it's not difficult, but it's a little difficult to do at home." Deng Xudong said, from reagents, containers, to stir bars, weighing and volume measuring tools, all kinds of required utensils are from the "beginning" of relatives and friends.
After initially obtaining the samples, he sent them by express mail to a professional third-party organization for testing, and then optimized the formula according to the results, and circulated back and forth until returning to the school laboratory for more precise experiments. The disinfection effect of the final formula finally satisfied him.
"After testing by the Guangdong Provincial Microbiological Analysis and Testing Center, the disinfection rate of this disinfectant against viruses under standard experimental conditions has reached 99.99%." Deng Xudong said humorously: "This is just a deal." At present, this disinfection The liquid has been trial-produced, and has been tested on the campus of Northwestern Polytechnical University.
But the story hasn't come to an end here. In the face of doubts about whether injection or even oral disinfection and drinking can be disinfected, Deng Xudong shouted: "The disinfection is used in vitro, it is effective in vitro, but not in vivo. Safety, human medicine must have both effectiveness and safety."
Specifically, drinking alcohol first cannot be disinfected. Alcohol must have a disinfection effect of 75%. Alcohol in human blood cannot reach such a high concentration. If a small amount of alcohol is consumed, it will be directly metabolized by the liver; if it is injected directly with a high concentration of alcohol, alcohol is used as An organic solvent can seriously damage substances in the blood and cause serious damage to the human body.
If it is 84 disinfectant, wherever it goes, it will be corroded and burned. "For disinfectant, human tissues such as blood vessels and esophagus are quite fragile."
The relatively mild quaternary ammonium salt disinfectant, "can be used to disinfect the skin surface within a certain concentration range", but injection or taking will inevitably cause damage to human cells and tissues.
Thousands of scientific principles come together in a sentence, Deng Xudong said: "If the disinfectant is used directly on people, it will not be disinfected but it will become a poison. Oral or injectable disinfectants are completely nonsense and should never be tried."
Zhang Qian Source: China Youth Daily