My guess is that 20% is strong enough to effectively kill cells and denature proteins + nucleic acids, and that any higher concentration would be overkill. Also 20% is relatively safer for the user than higher concentrations. Can anyone give proper credence to these notions? Thanks!
As with all methods of sterilization, the action of bleach is a function of time. Sterilization is usually an exponential decay. If you start with a higher concentration, similar to autoclaving at a higher temperature, the overall reaction takes less time.
I am not sure anymore what concentration we used, but in a previous job we had strict orders to wait 180min for bleach inactivation.
Just as Achim mentioned. With bleach you just need enough to sterilize the glassware. The percentage of bleach used should follow BSL safety recommendations. For BSL-1 you just need 20%, for higher BSL levels you might need 100%
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