So I made my own iodophor*, and was wondering if this sanitizer (and all others) need a surfactant. When you shake up some sanitizer in your carboy or bottling bucket, it would be ideal if it coats the surface and keeps it wet. This is why Star San makes foam and teat dip (bulk iodophor for dairies) uses thickeners. Even CIP depends on the surface staying wet, because there's usually not a constant "gallons per second" flow.
When I tried to shake up the sanitizer in my bottling bucket, it stayed almost totally dry. I ended up adding a bunch of surfactant to make it wet, but I don't have a good food-grade tasteless nonfoaming surfactant.
Do all good sanitizers contain a lot of surfactant? When you properly dilute BTF Iodophor, does it fully wet plastics?
* I ordered povidone-iodine powder from taobao. (Sorry, I looked hard but could not find this product on any western web site.) I buffered it to pH=3, warmed it up, and put it on a stir plate for half an hour. I was rewarded with something that looks exactly like iodophor from a phramacy. However, it's totally different than BTF Iodophor, but I couldn't tell you how without a laboratory.
When I tried to shake up the sanitizer in my bottling bucket, it stayed almost totally dry. I ended up adding a bunch of surfactant to make it wet, but I don't have a good food-grade tasteless nonfoaming surfactant.
Do all good sanitizers contain a lot of surfactant? When you properly dilute BTF Iodophor, does it fully wet plastics?
* I ordered povidone-iodine powder from taobao. (Sorry, I looked hard but could not find this product on any western web site.) I buffered it to pH=3, warmed it up, and put it on a stir plate for half an hour. I was rewarded with something that looks exactly like iodophor from a phramacy. However, it's totally different than BTF Iodophor, but I couldn't tell you how without a laboratory.