Benzalkonium Chloride: An All-round Player in the Disinfection

Field In August 2024, with the enhancement of global health awareness, the disinfectant market has embraced new development opportunities. Among them, benzalkonium chloride, as a highly efficient and broad-spectrum disinfectant, has attracted much attention due to its unique advantages.

1. Benzalkonium chloride is a kind of single-chain quaternary ammonium salt disinfectant. With its characteristics such as good stability, non-toxicity, and non-irritation, it has become a research hotspot in recent years. It can not only effectively kill bacteria and fungi but also inactivate viruses, and is widely used in fields such as skin and environmental disinfection. Currently, benzalkonium chloride has been approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for use in various preparations such as patches, solutions, sprays, and eye drops.

2. The bactericidal mechanism of benzalkonium chloride mainly lies in changing the permeability of the cytoplasmic membrane, causing the exudation of cytoplasmic substances of the bacteria, thereby hindering their metabolism and playing a killing role. Although it has a stronger effect on Gram-positive bacteria and a weaker effect on Gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, it is basically ineffective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and bacterial spores. However, in practical applications, benzalkonium chloride still performs excellently. Especially, the characteristic that its effect is significantly reduced in the presence of blood, cotton, cellulose, and organic substances also makes its use safer in specific occasions.

3. Besides its applications in the medical field, benzalkonium chloride is also widely used for industrial disinfection. As a non-oxidizing fungicide, it can effectively control the reproduction of bacteria and algae and the growth of slime in water, and has a good slime stripping effect as well as certain dispersing and penetrating effects. Benzalkonium chloride plays an important role in fields such as factory circulating cooling water, power plant water, paper mills, and oilfield well injection systems.

With the progress of science and technology and the continuous increase in people’s demand for hygiene, the market prospect of benzalkonium chloride will be even broader. Its unique advantages and multi-purpose characteristics make it an all-round player in the disinfection field, contributing important forces to the development of global health undertakings.