Ingredients --

Alcohol

Chemical Formula:

Synonyms

ethanol,
ethyl alcohol,
SD alcohol 40-B

Description

Colorless flammable liquid

Uses

Alcohol is used as a fast drying solvent in many products, especially cosmetics and hair sprays.

When the word alcohol is used alone, it refers to ethanol, the alcohol found in wine, beer, and distilled spirits.

When used in products not licensed for drinking, ethanol is usually denatured. Such alcohols are called denatured alcohol, or "specially denatured" alcohol. You will often see "SD alcohol" mentioned on a label, sometimes followed by a number and letter, such as "40-B". This is the designation given by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to the denaturing method used. For example, SD-40 is ethanol denatured by adding tiny amounts of the bitterest tasting substance known -- denatonium benzoate.

Other alcohols

There are a large number of alcohols besides ethanol. All of them have the hydroxyl group OH attached to a carbon atom. The simplest is methanol:

Methanol has one carbon, ethanol has two, and there are two forms of the alcohol with three carbons -- propanol

and isopropanol.