Extemporaneous hand sanitizer.

[Graham.]

So it becomes an emulsion then? Just shake well before use.

[Graham.]

I've just ordered a litre of IPA, I going to decant it into small plastic bottles with a little hand cream.

Couldn't find any in the shops.

Typing ALK into Google suggests this is a hot topic.

[Graham.]

^^^ ALC sorry.

[Marland]

Won?t that turn it into Boddingtons.

GH

[Roger Hayter]

I've been recommended 30-40% aloe vera gel. Apparently it leaves little residue and is not too sticky, but does make the alcohol solution more viscous and reduce its vapour pressure.

[spuorgelgoog]

No, Baileys.

Owain

[Andy Burns]

I thought I had one in the back of the car, but it was a non-alcohol version.

The shelves in Morrisons were "empty". I'm quite a tall chap so I noticed a cardboard box hiding right at the back of the top shelf, turns out there were a couple of bottles lurking in there.

After peeling the "Little miss tickle" sticker off the containers, you'd never know, apart from it being bright yellow!

[Chris Hogg]

Lots of recipes here:

Basically, some sort of gel, aloe vera is popular, with alcohol, one part gel to two parts alcohol. It's the alcohol that kills the virus - the gel just stops your skin drying up, but the mix needs to contain at least 60% alcohol, so I doubt that IPA would do. Any alcohol seems to be OK. Rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) is popular, but ethanol seems OK as vodka is also suggested (but the proportions may need adjusting to account for its water content, say one gel to three vodka), and I have a bottle of meths somewhere in the garage. But HuffPost advises against diy sanitiser, preferring thorough handwashing instead

[Thomas Prufer]

A quick google for ingredients shows glycerin might also work instead of hand cream. ISTR that maximum effect is not at the highest concentration of IPA.

Hand cream is ingenious, though!

Couldn't find what they use for a thickener in gel formulations...

Thomas Prufer

[Jeff Layman]

See last bullet point here:

For high-alcohol formulations fumed silica can be used as the gelling agent.

[Brian Reay]

You could look on YouTube at the ?recipe? to make fuel for sterno camping stoves.

Sterno stoves are common in the US. Sterno fuel is alcohol gel. People make it as the refills are quite expensive. There are several recipes, the simplest uses a powder used in poultry keeping etc and alcohol.

I was introduced to Sterno stoves many years ago on a fishing trip in the US. I?ve never seen them here or even an equivalent- although there are gel stoves.

[Andy Burns]

Little miss tickle lists the ingredients in order as alcohol, water, glycerin, polyacrylic acid ... everything lower down the list seems to be perfumes and dyes, or additives to prevent UV killing the perfumes and dyes.

[Brian Reay]

See my response to Roger- that is essentially how some of the Sterno substitutes are made but with different gelling agents.

[Andy Bennet]

No John Smiths. You really need Fullers ESB they used to run Concorde on that.

[Roger Hayter]

Even neat vodka doesn't have enough alcohol in it.

[Dave Liquorice]

Ethanol fuel tins for chafing dishes?

[Andy Burns]

Something I read said it needs to be >80%

[Jethro_uk]

This is uk.d-i-y. Surely you should be building a still ?

[nothanks]

Snap! I was going to say I'd done the same thing, but I ordered 5 litres because it's useful stuff to have around (unless there's a fire!).

Does anyone know whether emollients such as Diprobase make good carriers for the alcohol?

[michael adams]

As a matter of interest what is the exact point of any of this ?

From the Huff Post link there is the much reproduced quote

"The best way to protect yourself from infections like coronavirus is to regularly wash your hands with soap and water," said Dr Nick Phin, deputy director at the National Infection Service, PHE, adding that "proper hand washing is the most effective method and this should be your first choice".

The suggestion appears to be that the easiest way to pick up this virus is by touching hard surfaces which (I assume) have been sneezed on or coughed on by carriers. And then touching your face, more specifically mouth eyes ofr nostrils. But it must be assumed that for most people this touching will take place away from home maybe on a bus or train where there are no hand washing facilities. So the above observation is pointless

In these circumstances hand washing gel would seem to be the answer as they are when carried in the car or bike toolkit for cleaning dirty hands. However unless a person wears gloves, which seems infinitely preferable to this palaver it would seem to mean that they would either be having to cleaning their hands constantly with gel or never touching their face which is an instictive reaction which it would be difficult to break IMO.

And exactly the same would apply in the home if the idea is to prevent cross infection by family members. Basically if anyone touches a hard surface which has possibly been contaminated by a family member then they will need to wash their hands before touching their face.

IOW why not simply wear gloves all the time outside (if its ever thought necessary) , take them off to touch your face, and leave them on the hall table.

This whole thing has got to be a wind-up, right ?

michael adams

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