Posts about isopropyl
Seperating Isopropyl Alcohol and Water
2020-03-15 10:08
Not really a recipe in the sense of what I normally post here, but it seemed like the best place to file it all the same.
With COVID-19 raging worldwide, vulnerable people in our family, and limited availability (due to others hoarding/panic buying), I wanted to make my own hand sanitiser. Unfortunately, I only had Isopropyl 70% on the shelf, which isn't sufficiently strong once watered down with the other sanitiser ingredients.
This is a technique to seperate the Isopropyl and water from a 99.9 Isopropyl solution, in order to extract more concentrated alcohol - it's not technically purification as we're not doing anything to the alcohol itself.
Water and alcohols like Isopropyl are miscible - they can be mixed together in all proportions, so there isn't a way to "filter" the alcohol out.
This process is known as "salting out" or dehydrating Isopropyl. Essentially what it's doing is taking a mix of Isopropyl and water (such as you might have in Isopropyl 50% or 70%), and dissolving salt into the water to make brine - the heavier brine will sink to the bottom forming a seperate layer.
Care must be taken with this, Isopropyl is extremely flammable. It can also be absorbed through the skin and poison you.
Home made hand sanitiser gel
2020-03-15 10:01
Not really a recipe in the sense of what I normally post here, but it seemed like the best place to file it all the same.
Hand sanitiser is currently sold out pretty much everywhere, however we've people in the family who might be especially vulnerable to COVID-19 so need to minimise the chances of us contracting and communicating on.
So, as I keep some Isopropyl around anyway, I decided to make my own. The consistency isn't quite the same as shop-bought - it's a little more runny.
The recipe also uses some tea-tree essential oil, as it's supposed to have anti-bacterial and anti-septic effects. Unfortunately I can't stand the smell of the stuff, so I added a few drops of lime essential oil to help mask it a bit.
The measures below will create about 60ml (give or take depending on the essential oil), you should increase proportionally if you need more - to be effective the alcohol content must be at least 60%, the measures given will create a 64% concentration (assuming your total essential oil addition weighs in at 1ml, which is perhaps over generous).
You need 99.9% Isopropyl for this, using 70% won't work as you'll water it down below that important 60% mark. You can, however, dehydrate 70% Isopropyl (or even 50%) to get near-pure alcohol.