When students return to Austin Peay State University in the fall, theyll likely clean their hands with homemade sanitizer from the Austin Peay department of chemistry.

Thats because university officials decided to tap their own resources last month when the COVID-19 pandemic made hand sanitizer an important tool in combatting coronavirus almost impossible to find.

We have everything we need in a chemical laboratory to do these types of things, said Lisa Sullivan, chair of the Austin Peay department of chemistry. While the commercially available products have proprietary ingredients, basically what they are is chemicals, and we have those and can order them. Theyre not in short supply.

In April, Austin Peays campus police announced it was down to its last bottle of hand sanitizer. Clarksvilles Old Glory Distillery donated several bottles to the department, but Austin Peay officers often encountering high-touch areas quickly went through that supply. During a Zoom meeting, Michael Kasitz, assistant vice president of public safety, asked if anyone could help.

I had my lab manager start experimenting, because thats what we do as chemists experiment, Sullivan said. We made some for campus police. It wasnt my favorite but they needed it immediately. The first batch had too much glycerin; it was oilier, took too long to rub in.

Knowing the entire campus would need hand sanitizer when classes resume this fall, the chemists went to work perfecting their product. They found a winning recipe using ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and glycerin.

Sullivan is currently scrambling to find enough bottles to contain the sanitizer. The University has ordered several reusable bottles, and once they arrive, the department will begin filling them with the APSU-made sanitizer.

The bottles will be made available to students, faculty and staff when they return to campus in the fall. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend regularly washings hands to prevent contracting the new coronavirus.

We want people to feel safe when they return to campus, she said. And its what we do. If we didnt step up to do something like this, it would be awfully embarrassing. Thats the Austin Peay way, not just the department of chemistry.

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Austin Peay department of chemistry makes hand sanitizer for campus in the fall - Main Street Clarksville