Ethylene oxide sterilization

Since 1950s, ethylene oxide (EO) has been used for medical sterilization. Researches of many scientists demonstrated that ethylene oxide was considered as a low-temperature chemical sterilization agent. EO has a good penetration performance at room temperature and not damage to the articles so that it is widely used in sterilization medical devices which can’t stand high temperature and high moist. EO is a simple epoxy compounds having a greater vapor pressure and strong penetration for articles. The sterilization principle is that EO combines to the bacterial protein amino, hydroxyl and carboxyl to react alkylation. As a result, proteins will loss of response genes and be interfered with normal chemical reactions and metabolism, which then lead to the death of microorganisms.