Issue 27, 2012 - Pure glutaraldehyde

Whether it is medical device disinfection, food processing disinfection, and other disinfection fields closely related to human daily life, or oil and gas field water treatment, industrial circulating cooling water treatment, corrosion inhibitors, pharmaceutical intermediates production and other industrial fields, the role of glutaraldehyde is crucial
.

In practice, a typical glutaraldehyde formulation is a 50% aqueous solution
.
However, in order to reduce costs, there are mixed phenomena in the market, such as the use of formaldehyde and glyoxal to formulate a "fake" glutaraldehyde solution with the same specific gravity and the same number of aldehyde groups to obtain high profits
.
This "fake" glutaraldehyde is not only difficult to compare with pure glutaraldehyde, but also contains formaldehyde that is potentially carcinogenic
.

In order to help customers distinguish the difference between genuine glutaraldehyde and counterfeit products, and to make the various performance advantages of glutaraldehyde known to the public
.
DOW MICROBIAL CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES LAUNCHES A COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH PROGRAM
FOR GENUINE GLUTARALDEHYDE.

"Pure glutaraldehyde" column (1)
Glutaraldehyde scientific name 1, 5-glutaraldehyde, as early as 1951 by scientists Smith and Ballard cooperation research and development, United Carbonization Co.
, Ltd.
(later acquired by Dow Chemical Co.
, Ltd.
) obtained a license and the first successful commercial production
in the mid-fifties 。 As a global leader and innovator in glutaraldehyde technology, United Carbonization is now Dow Chemical Microbial Control Technology business unit has obtained the first patents in oilfield, animal safety, cooling circulating water, papermaking, formulation product production and other fields, and has been committed to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and European Biocidal Directive (BPD) and other registration updates
.

Glutaraldehyde is a low-molecular-weight linear aliphatic dialdehyde with a slightly pungent odor that plays an important role
in many fields that is almost irreplaceable.
Because of its rapid, broad-spectrum, efficient antimicrobial properties and low toxicity to humans and animals at the use of concentrations, non-teratogenic, carcinogenic, mutagenic compounds, safe and easy to degrade, glutaraldehyde is widely used in the field of disinfection and sterilization; Because of its highly active crosslinking characteristics, it is used as the main tanning agent in chromium-free tanning of leather; Glutaraldehyde has the advantages of high activity, no by-products and stable reaction products, and is almost the only cross-linking agent widely used.
In particular, it is worth mentioning that glutaraldehyde crosslinking can be used to prepare a variety of biological tissue materials or biological modified materials, such as collagen modified by its crosslinking can be used as a scaffold for human organs such as cardiovascular tissue repair
.
Glutaraldehyde can also be used in the production of monoketones, diones, aldehyde ketones and other fine chemicals, as well as the production of
image fixers, corrosion inhibitors, pharmaceutical intermediates, etc.

Although glutaraldehyde belongs to the same "aldehyde" family as formaldehyde, some people may confuse glutaraldehyde with formaldehyde or other aldehydes
.
In fact, regardless of chemical structure, potency or toxicological characteristics, glutaraldehyde is significantly different from
formaldehyde or other aldehydes.
First of all, experiments have proved that glutaraldehyde is far superior to formaldehyde's bactericidal activity, and the production of glutaraldehyde does not use formaldehyde as raw material, so it does not contain formaldehyde; When in use, whether under aerobic or anaerobic conditions, glutaraldehyde will not degrade and release formaldehyde; Not only that, glutaraldehyde is easily degraded and can usually be degraded into carbon dioxide and water in the presence of oxygen, sunlight, microorganisms and
heat.
Therefore, pure glutaraldehyde is very different from other aldehydes, and it is important
to use pure glutaraldehyde to identify applications in practical applications.

(The content of this article is provided by Dow's Microbial Control Technologies business unit)