Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating How to formulate 60% IPA based hand sanitizer gel

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  • How to formulate 60% IPA based hand sanitizer gel

    Posted by padmavathi on February 28, 2020 at 4:12 pm

    I would like to know how to formulate 60% IPA hand sanitizer gel.

    None of the carbomers are holding the IPA by itself. I finally got a proper gel with Rheocare C plus (carbomer) 1.7% and Polysorbate 80, but the gel in very sticky when used and leaves a thick gooey coat. 
    Anonymous replied 3 years, 9 months ago 9 Members · 26 Replies
  • 26 Replies
  • chemist77

    Member
    February 28, 2020 at 4:48 pm

    Ultrez 20  or Ultrez 21 should do the job, simple carbomer won’t fit in here. 

  • Agate

    Member
    February 28, 2020 at 8:00 pm
    Hi Padmavathi, not exactly what you’re asking about, but you may want to check out this recent thread: https://chemistscorner.com/cosmeticsciencetalk/discussion/comment/44450#Comment_44450
    I’d use a much higher percentage of IPA, Ethanol would be better if possible as it shows significantly better activity against viruses. The standard for most hospitals is 85% ethanol. 80% is generally good enough, I wouldn’t go much lower.
    You may want to add some glycerol, a maximum of 0.725% is recommended here: https://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2047-2994-2-34
    I have no experience with Ultrez 20 or 21, but I can see that the very popular hand gel that I use has Acrylates/C 10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer in it, and it leaves no sticky feel at all.

  • bahey

    Member
    February 29, 2020 at 5:34 am

    This is very important topic , please share experience,
    sticky feeling is a very common result i have the same ,

    -acqrylic acrylate 1.5 %

    -Triethanolamin to neutralize 
    - ethanol 40 %
    -propelen glycol 2% or more because it seems to reduce sticky feeling .
    - perfume plus same amount of tween 20, 1%

    mixing all ingredients except a  triethanolamin .
    finally neutralize with triethanolamin 

    This is my method

  • padmavathi

    Member
    February 29, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    @Chemist77, i tried ultrez 10 and  20, didnt work. Will try to get ultrez 21 and try using it.
    @Agate, my client wants IPA specifically as they cant get license to get ethanol. Acrylates C 10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer is ultrez 20 i guess. I added propylene glycol 2%, didnt help. 

    @bahey, i used 4% aminopropanol for neutralising, as triethanolamine or sodium hydroxide didnt work.
  • chemist77

    Member
    February 29, 2020 at 3:34 pm

    a) Order of addition is pretty important 
    b) In case Ultrez 20 failed, then stick to good old carbomer 940 which gives the highest viscosity. Clarity might be a tad low though. 

    c) Why the polysorbate 80??
  • Agate

    Member
    February 29, 2020 at 5:34 pm
    @Padmavathi, fair enough, I would urge you to use at least 75% IPA, as per WHO guidelines.
    @bahey 40% ethanol isn’t proven to be effective against SARS-Coronaviruses (or many other viruses), it would be reckless to distribute this as a hand sanitizer. Please reformulate to contain 80% ethanol, again this is as per WHO guidelines.
    On a side note, Sterillium Gel also contains Cyclomethicone, which I imagine helps give it its smooth skin feel.
  • padmavathi

    Member
    February 29, 2020 at 5:42 pm

    @Chemist77 i took 28% of 6% rheocare c plus solution, added 2% polysorbate 80, 3%PG. mixed it and added 60% IPA. Then neutralised with 4% aminopropanol. Gel was stable, clarity was better than that with carbopol 940. 2% or 3% rheocare c plus solution didnt give gel consistency. I used polysorbate 80 because i read in an article that it could help hold the IPA in a carbomer gel, same reason i used PG.

    @Agate 60% IPA was the client requirement. I will check on the 75%. 

  • Agate

    Member
    February 29, 2020 at 7:18 pm
    Surely your client wouldn’t want to distribute a potentially ineffective product if they were aware of the issue.
    “Products with relatively low ethanol concentrations of up to 70 % (w/w)
    usually are not sufficiently effective for hygienic hand disinfection,
    when 3 ml are applied for 30 seconds. Particularly gels are considered
    less effective than liquid products as they contain less ethanol. Also,
    products with low ethanol contents hardly achieve virucidal activity.”
    75% Isopropanol blend shown to be effective against SARS-Coronavirus
    Conclusion: “Consumers should be alerted to check the alcohol concentration in hand
    sanitizers because substandard products may be marketed to the public.”
  • belassi

    Member
    February 29, 2020 at 10:34 pm

    I wonder if a Dettol gel would work well. Mind you I have no idea if carbomer can make a gel with dettol. Dilute Dettol obviously and it would be white, not clear.

  • chemist77

    Member
    March 1, 2020 at 12:53 am

    The castor oil soap in dettol will crash the carbomer IMO. 

  • chemist77

    Member
    March 1, 2020 at 1:07 am

    Should be Ultrez 20/21 dispersed in water first. Neutralize with AMP-95, then slowly add the IPA to the gel while stirring/mixing. Also please check the neutralization ratios to get an optimum pH. 

  • padmavathi

    Member
    March 1, 2020 at 6:58 am

    @Chemist77  okay will try it this way. pH was between 7 and 8. 

  • bahey

    Member
    March 1, 2020 at 7:10 am

    When i was trying to increase ethanol concentrations it separates and form a big solid white particles,

    Agate said:

    @Padmavathi, fair enough, I would urge you to use at least 75% IPA, as per WHO guidelines.
    @bahey 40% ethanol isn’t proven to be effective against SARS-Coronaviruses (or many other viruses), it would be reckless to distribute this as a hand sanitizer. Please reformulate to contain 80% ethanol, again this is as per WHO guidelines.
    On a side note, Sterillium Gel also contains Cyclomethicone, which I imagine helps give it its smooth skin feel.

    How Cyclomethicone will be dissolve in the formula ?
    what about propelen glycol  ?
     Still don’t find anything remove stickiness of the gel ,
    propelen glycol makes the gel turns to liquid !

  • jemolian

    Member
    March 2, 2020 at 2:44 am

    Not sure if you have checked out the sample formulations from Lubrizol from UlProspector. 
    https://www.ulprospector.com/en/asia/PersonalCare/Suppliers/849/Lubrizol/search?k=hand+sanitizer&st=1&so=k_0&sl=88396652

    I’ve used IPA mixed with fragrance with Sepimax Zex or Aristoflex AVC and a humectant. I can’t use Ultrez as i don’t have the suitable neutralizer as it fails on me.  

  • EVchem

    Member
    March 2, 2020 at 6:40 pm

  • Agate

    Member
    March 2, 2020 at 8:02 pm

    Sterillium Gel uses Tetrahydroxypropyl Ethylenediamine (Neutrol TE). I keep mentioning it because I really do like its formulation, zero stickiness.

  • padmavathi

    Member
    March 3, 2020 at 5:08 am

    Ive tried amp 95. Will try to get my hands on neutrol te and try it. 

  • bil7

    Member
    March 5, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    First the main issue is dnt use tween 80 it creates foaming soap type bubbles on hands eliminate it .
    And make gel through simply by acrylate copolymer and neutralize it .then add slow IpA and mix and then add low molecular weight PEG in  it totally reduce stickness problem and gives smooth velvet feel on hands .
    Not PG will work in it.
    We are already making in bulk quantities.
    And feels so good. 

  • ozgirl

    Member
    March 6, 2020 at 12:26 am

    Out of general interest does anyone know what units the % Alcohol in Figure 5 from lubrizol are? weight/weight, weight/volume or volume/volume because there is a reasonable difference between the values due to the low SG of ethanol.

  • belassi

    Member
    March 6, 2020 at 3:31 pm

    Sanitisers contain 60% V/V.

  • padmavathi

    Member
    March 6, 2020 at 5:05 pm

    @bil7 thanks, will try it.

  • bahey

    Member
    March 8, 2020 at 12:17 pm

    @Chemist77, i tried ultrez 10 and  20, didnt work. Will try to get ultrez 21 and try using it.
    @Agate, my client wants IPA specifically as they cant get license to get ethanol. Acrylates C 10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer is ultrez 20 i guess. I added propylene glycol 2%, didnt help. 

    @bahey, i used 4% aminopropanol for neutralising, as triethanolamine or sodium hydroxide didnt work.

    Why Triethanolamin didn’t work !

  • padmavathi

    Member
    March 15, 2020 at 3:05 pm

    @bahey I’m not sure about that but i got the formulation figured. As @jemolian said, sepimax zen works, no neutralization needed!

  • Anonymous

    Guest
    June 9, 2020 at 6:58 pm

    @Chemist77, i tried ultrez 10 and  20, didnt work. Will try to get ultrez 21 and try using it.
    @Agate, my client wants IPA specifically as they cant get license to get ethanol. Acrylates C 10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer is ultrez 20 i guess. I added propylene glycol 2%, didnt help. 

    @bahey, i used 4% aminopropanol for neutralising, as triethanolamine or sodium hydroxide didnt work.

    Hi Padmavathi,
    There is no technical reason that ultrez 10 or 21 not holding IPA may be you are not using the right % of ultrez.try with higher % and also cut back to 1% pg.and neutralize with diipa.

  • Anonymous

    Guest
    June 9, 2020 at 7:00 pm

    use AMP AS A THICKNER.

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