Both are antibacterial or disinfectant substances. It can be seen from the chart that the quaternary ammonium chloride is a kind of low effective disinfectant, and the benzalkonium chloride is a kind of broad-spectrum disinfectant.
Antibacterial agents and disinfectants are different in definition and nature: the definition of disinfectant refers to the substance “used to kill pathogenic microorganisms on the media, make them harmless, eliminate pathogenic microorganisms outside the human body, cut off the transmission route of infectious diseases, and achieve the purpose of controlling infectious diseases”. Disinfectants can be divided into disinfectant, high-efficiency disinfectant, medium efficiency disinfectant and low-efficiency disinfectant according to their action level.
Sterilizing agent can kill all microorganisms to meet the sterilization requirements, including formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, ethylene oxide, peracetic acid, hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide, chlorine gas, copper sulfate, quicklime, etc. The definition of antibacterials (bacteriostatic agents) refers to “agents (except suppositories and soaps) that are in direct contact with skin and mucous membrane and have certain bactericidal and bacteriostatic effects.”. Antibacterial agents contact with microorganisms and then react. The result of the reaction is that the common components of microorganisms are destroyed or the supply is obstructed, making them lose their reproductive capacity or inhibit their reproductive capacity. ” Under the dosage, the killing rate of the antibacterial agent to the test bacteria specified in the test items is more than 90% (killing logarithm value is more than or equal to 1.0), while the inhibitory rate of the antibacterial agent to the test bacteria specified in the test items is more than or equal to 50%.
Or simply speaking, disinfectants can play the role of sterilization, which can be divided into the above four categories according to the speed of reaction; antimicrobial agents focus on inhibiting or killing reproductive capacity, so as to control it in a certain amount.
From their physicochemical properties, benzalkonium chloride is a cationic surfactant, which is a non oxidizing bactericide. It has a broad-spectrum and efficient ability to kill bacteria and algae. It can effectively control the propagation of bacteria and algae in water and the growth of slime. It has a good slime stripping effect and a certain dispersion and penetration effect. At the same time, it has a certain degreasing, deodorization ability and corrosion inhibition effect. It is easy to dissolve in water or ethanol, and slightly soluble in ether. Benzalkonium chloride is widely used to disinfect skin and surgical instruments in medical treatment. Benzalkonium chloride is mixed into 1:1000 aqueous solution to disinfect hands of medical staff before operation. 0.01% benzalkonium chloride solution can be used for washing and disinfection of wound infection. No irritation to skin and mucous membrane, low toxicity and good stability. The solubility of p-chloro-m-xylenol in water is 0.03%, and it is easily soluble in organic solvents such as alcohol, ether, polyglycol and strong alkali aqueous solution. It has stable chemical properties and will not be inactivated under normal storage conditions. Widely used in disinfection and personal hygiene care products. However, chloromxylenol may have incompatibility with nonionic surfactants (incompatibility refers to drug compatibility in vitro, Direct biological or chemical interaction will affect the efficacy of drugs or produce toxic reactions), inhibit the activity of non-ionic surfactants or release chloromxylenol gas, which can lead to necrosis and shedding of esophageal and gastrointestinal mucosal cells, esophageal burns, gastrointestinal mucosal shedding and toxic enteritis. At the same time, it also leads to intestinal flora imbalance. In addition, it can also cause serious damage to multiple system function, lead to acute respiratory failure, acute renal failure, and damage the body’s hematopoietic system. At present, the surfactants added to the washing liquid on the market are mainly non-ionic surfactants. Unfortunately, I have not found any literature to prove that this substance will not be compatible with the non-ionic surfactants in the washing liquid. Therefore, on the whole, if you want to use disinfectant while adding detergent, benzalkonium chloride is safer, because it is a cationic surfactant, which will not have much impact on the non-ionic surfactant in the detergent. However, it is generally not recommended to mix detergent and disinfectant, which is generally used separately.
