Facile on-site quality monitoring of alcohol based hand sanitizers by phase separation and color development with butyl acetate-crystal violet mixture

[Display omitted] •Basic quality test of hand sanitizer for its toxicity and in effect for coronavirus.•Quick, simple, cost effective field method.•Method can apply for all types of sanitizers.•End user can check the quality of hand sanitizer. Amidst the unprecedented demand for alcohol based hand sanitizers in the wake of the continuing onslaught of COVID-19 pandemic, a simple and rapid method for identifying spurious or non-conforming products is the need of the hour. Accordingly, a visual colorimetric method for the detection of methanol based hand sanitizers and also for the semi-quantitative determination of ethanol or propanol in ethanol or propanol based products is developed. Methanol based sanitizers pose a serious threat to human health while ethanol or propanol based sanitizers containing 95% volume of sanitizers, the method utilizes the alcohol dependent miscibility of alcohol-water binary mixtures in n-butyl acetate for analysis. The phase separations in the alcohol:water:n-butyl acetate ternary mixtures are quantitatively identified through colour contrast developed by the addition of crystal violet. The method has been applied to several commercially available liquid and also gel type sanitizers. It works well for colorless as well as coloured sanitizers. It is simple and can be used for selecting the right kind of hand sanitizers.