Oonagh+S

Oonagh S. 2011-2012
 * THE STUDY OF THE EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT ANTISEPTICS AND IF PH AND AMOUNT AFFECT THE QUANTITY OF GERMS REMOVED **


 * ABSTRACT **

The purpose of this study was to see, in a given selections of antiseptics, which antiseptic removed the most amount of germs and if the pH of the antiseptic and the amount of it affected how well it cleaned. Bacteria are complex and are the world’s smallest and most abundant life forms that produce the perfect living conditions on earth. In each experiment, a 6 by 6 cm area of countertop was measured out, then a substance called glo-germ was spread over it and finally, each antiseptic was tested to see how much of the glo-germ was removed by seeing how much ultraviolet light was reflected off of the glo-germ. It turns out that hydrogen peroxide was the most effective antiseptic and that pH doesn’t affect it and amount does. These results were not surprising because hydrogen peroxide is meant to thoroughly clean out wounds on the human body and is, therefore, and powerful antiseptic.


 * CONCLUSION **

It was found that hydrogen peroxide was the most effective antiseptic and that pH did not affect it and amount did. These results could be important to the world when trying to improve products such as Clorox wipes to see if they can clean off surfaces much more affectively. The hypothesis that was made before the start of the experiment was incorrect because it was thought that pH would affect the amount of germs that were removed, but it didn’t. Some follow up experiment based off of this series of experiment could be; testing to see if temperature affected the efficacy of antiseptics and if different antiseptics combined were more efficient.

