ABSTRACT
CONTENTS 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 73 5.2 In Situ Generation of Active Species ....................................................... 77 5.3 Synergistic Mixtures................................................................................... 79 5.4 Novel Biocidal Actives............................................................................... 80 5.5 Optimized Actives Delivery ..................................................................... 83 5.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 84 References ............................................................................................................. 84
Considerable progress has been made in the field of disinfectants and infection control since the publication of Antoine van Leeuwenhoek’s drawings of small living creatures in a variety of habitats in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1677. Surprisingly, disinfection technology continues to rely on essentially the same techniques discovered in the later nineteenth or early twentieth century. Hypochlorite solutions have been in use in hospital ward disinfection as early as 1854, hydrogen peroxide as a disinfectant since 1858, aqueous solutions of short-chain alcohols have been known to be effective since 1903, while phenolic compounds have been employed since 1877. Nonetheless, major breakthroughs occurred well into the twentieth century, most notably, the chlorinated phenols in 1933, long-chain quaternary ammonium salts in 1935, halogenated bisphenols in 1941, biguanides in 1950, amphoteric amine surfactants in 1954, and anionic surfactants in 1952 [1].
