Improvements in the Sterilization Performance of Sodium Hypochlorite

Abstract

Sodium hypochlorite solution is one of the most useful and important sterilizers. It has high sterilizing power even in low concentrations and with various bacteria. In addition, the risk for the human body is low and the preparation cost is cheap. However its weak point is that it's sterilizing power for the spores of Bacillus cereus is very low. Improvements in the sterilization performance of Sodium hypochlorite for the spore have been investigated. Two methods for killing the spore have been found. The technical methods are as follows (1) the spore of Bacillus cereus can be destroyed by accelerating the evolution of the hydroxyl radical by adding Fe²⁺ as a reducing agent (same as Fenton’s reagent) and (2) by non-ionization of NaOCl by including NaCl to be the strong electrolyte in the Sodium hypochlorite solution. As a result, the sterilizing properties of the Sodium hypochlorite solution by improved six orders of magnitude and had the same performance as HOCl by non-ionization of NaOCl by adding NaCl.