Alcohol (Ethyl alcohol) or Ethanol, is a chemical widely used in pharmaceuticals and consumer products. Ethanol is used in formulations of products like skin disorder treatments, over-the-counter (OTC) products, cosmetics and beauty products, and disinfectants and hand sanitizers. It is important to monitor the quality of ethanol used in these products to protect human and animal health.
This application note analyzes trace level impurities that can be found in ethanol as per USP guidelines. The first section of this note describes the analysis of USP grade Ethanol as per USP recommended condition and procedures with gas chromatography (GC). The second section describes a modified procedure that produces excellent results with a greatly improved data throughput and significant reduction in laboratory sample preparation time.