interaction between detergents and disinfectants with the virus.

1. Eng: WALAKIRA BRUNO
INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY - 2016 (MUCS)
QUALITY l VALUE
“The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking” - Albert Einstein
UNCOVER THE CHEMISTRY IN EVERYDAY LIFE.
The recent pandemic has led to the innovation of many products in the country which were
not in existence and stimulation of the existing ones to boom on the market. Many more but
some of these product, I will pin point ‘hand sanitizer.’ Question aroused how does this product
really work? Yes, the labels always read, "Kills 99.99% of Germs!" but does the science of hand
sanitizers back it up? Today we're taking a closer look at what this goo is made of, and just how
effective it really is against viruses and bacteria. This comes along with the soap too.
We used to feel surprised how soap cleans our hand and kill germs present in our hand?
The soap contains some chemicals to do this activity so it is the application of chemistry in our
daily life. Likewise, detergent acts as asurfactant and helps to wash clothes. The soap contains
fatty acid e.g. Steric, oleic, palmitic acid, and strong alkali and detergent contain Sodium Lauryl
Sulfate & Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Phosphates, etc. They act as an emulsifier. Soaps are cleaning
agents that are usually made by reacting alkali (e.g. Sodium hydroxide) with naturally occurring
fat or fatty acids. The reaction produces sodium salts of these fatty acids, which improve the
cleaning process by making water better able to lift away greasy stains from skin, hair, clothes,
and just about anything else. As a substance that has helped clean bodies as well as possessions,
soap has been remarkably useful.
I will model the interaction between hand sanitizer particles and virus particles, as well as
between soap particles and virus particles. They will apply their understanding of molecular
structure and intermolecular forces to analyze their observations and behavior of the particles,
in order to gain a better understanding of how soaps and sanitizers work.
The behavior of soaps and hand sanitizers is an application of the principle “like dissolves
like.” Polar molecules such as alcohols contain certain functional groups (-OH in the case of
alcohol) that are attracted to water, forming strong intermolecular interactions. In
contrast, nonpolar molecules such as oils and biomolecules (ex: fats, proteins) are composed of
hydrocarbon groups (-CxHy-), which are not attracted to water. The active ingredients of soaps
and hand sanitizers feature the best of both worlds, with both polar and nonpolar regions in their
molecular structures. As a result, part of the molecule (hydrophobic) is attracted to organic
molecules such as proteins and fats, whereas the other part (hydrophilic part) is attracted to
water:
What happens when soaps and sanitizers interact with a virus? Since viruses are coated with a
variety of fats and proteins, the nonpolar regions of the soaps and sanitizers are attracted to this
coating, effectively pulling apart the virus structure. i modeled an experiment for this behavior
where I used a drop sanitizer, drop of liquid detergent. Tap water, black pepper, and two paper
sheets; with gloves, added drops of water to the sheets, followed by little black pepper (virus

2. Eng: WALAKIRA BRUNO
INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY - 2016 (MUCS)
QUALITY l VALUE
“The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking” - Albert Einstein
particles). To one paper sheet dropped sanitizer and to the other drop soap using ‘like dissolves
like principle’. On which the sanitizer was dropped, almost all the black pepper was smashed, as
compared to the other sheet with soap.