Quaternary Ammonium Compounds

QUATERNARY AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS

The quaternary ammonium compounds (“quats”) are cationic surface-active detergents. The active cation has at least one long water-repellent hydrocarbon chain, which causes the molecules to concentrate as an oriented layer on the surface of solutions and colloidal or suspended particles. The charged nitrogen portion of the cation has high affinity for water and prevents separation out of solution. The bactericidal action of quaternary compounds has been attributed to inactivation of energy-producing enzymes, denaturation of proteins, and disruption of the cell membrane. These agents are fungistatic and sporistatic and also inhibit algae. They are bactericidal for gram-positive bacteria and moderately active against gram-negative bacteria. Lipophilic viruses are inacti-vated. They are not tuberculocidal or sporicidal, and they do not inactivate hydrophilic viruses. Quaternary ammonium com-pounds bind to the surface of colloidal protein in blood, serum, and milk and to the fibers in cotton, mops, cloths, and paper towels used to apply them, which can cause inactivation of the agent by removing it from solution. They are inactivated by anionic detergents (soaps), by many nonionic detergents, and by calcium, magnesium, ferric, and aluminum ions.

Quaternary compounds are used for sanitation of noncritical surfaces (floors, bench tops, etc). Their low toxicity has led to their use as sanitizers in food production facilities. The CDC recom-mends that quaternary ammonium compounds such as benzalko-nium chloride notbe used as antiseptics because several outbreaksof infections have occurred that were due to growth of Pseudomonas and other gram-negative bacteria in quaternary ammonium anti-septic solutions.