I only have 83% ethanol, but everyone seems to use 70% in other plant tissue culture labs. Is the 83% perfectly safe for the plants and my skin?
Diluting ethanol seems to be complicated. So it's better if I can directly use 83% instead of mixing distilled water to it. Please help!
For disinfection use of ethanol the best way is preparing ethanol 70%. You should take 58 ml ethanol 83% and then increase to a volume of 100cc with distilled water.
For more detail about ethanol 70%:
Ethanol alcohol is water-soluble compound has anti-microbial action mechanism by denaturation or dehydretion of proteins and inhibition of metabolite production that indispensable for rapid cell division but, pure alcohol has low ability to penetrate in cell wall and caogulate protein immediately and created a protective layer for other proteins. On the other side, water has catalyst role in proteins hydrolysis and olso a high ability to penetration into the cell wall. Furthermore, adding water to alcohol slows down evaporation and increases the contact surface, resulting in greater effectiveness and reduced sterilization time.
Hello Jay, properly diluting ethanol is very easy when you use the so-called "mix cross" which is unfortunately not as well known as it deserves. As shown in the attached diagram you write on the left side the concentrations of the starting solutions, in this case 83 (your 83% ethanol) and 0 (= water, 0% ethanol). In the center you write the target concentration (70%). Then you calculate the differences on the right side as illustrated in the diagram. The mix cross then shows you that you need to take 70 ml of your 83% ethanol and add 13 ml water to give 70% ethanol. It's that easy!
Good luck with your work and best wishes, Frank Edelmann
It is advisable to use 70% ethanol for disinfection, anything more than 80% wont be able to kill all the microbes present
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