Physicochemical basis for the microbicidal action of disinfection solutions. I. Polyvinylpyrrolidinone-iodine

A new potency coefficient, termed the disinfectant activity coefficient of solution (DACS), for aqueous polyvinylpyrrolidinoneiodine (PVP-iodine) solutions is proposed. The DACS index, which is the sum of four terms (fluidity, surface tension, redox potential and osmolality), results in good correlation with the germicidal activity at different dilutions of PVP-iodine. Factor statistical analysis was applied to all the terms; the first two factors account for over 96% of the total variation in the data set (factor 1, 71.7%; factor 2, 24.5%). Keywords Polyvinylpyrrolidinone-iodine; Viscosity; Fluidity; Surface tension; Osmolality; Redox potential; Disinfection activity; Staphylococcus aureu