What is the difference in the different types of hand sanitizers, and how do they (in general) work?

Question

during my childhood I have come across different types of hand sanitizer, some come in foam, gel-form or even just plain liquid. Being the interested me, I also went up to search up on the mechanism of sanitizers but got many conflicting sources, so may I know how do they all work?

Thanks!

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Hand sanitizer liquid is mainly made up of rubbing alcohol more or less which is a disinfectant.

Rubbing alcohol kills germs. So by putting it in a hand sanitizer bottle and mixing it with some stuff to make it less runny or more sudsy, it lets whoever uses it kill any germs they may have on their hands.

By adding some stuff to make it smell good like flowers or soap, the hand sanitizer becomes less smelling like rubbing alcohol.

So, yeah, it’s rubbing alcohol….