Hydrogen Peroxide - History

History

Louis Jacques Thénard first described hydrogen peroxide in 1818. He produced it by reacting barium peroxide with nitric acid. An improved version of this process used hydrochloric acid, followed by addition of sulfuric acid to precipitate the barium sulfate byproduct. Thénard's process was used from the end of the 19th century until the middle of the 20th century. Modern production methods are discussed below.

Pure hydrogen peroxide was long believed to be unstable. This was because of failed attempts to separate the hydrogen peroxide from the water, which is present during synthesis. However, this instability was due to traces of impurities (transition metals salts) that catalyze the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide. One hundred percent pure hydrogen peroxide was first obtained through vacuum distillation by Richard Wolffenstein in 1894. At the end of the 19th century, Petre Melikishvili and his pupil L. Pizarjevski showed that of the many proposed formulas of hydrogen peroxide, the correct one was H−O−O−H.

The use of H₂O₂ sterilization in biological safety cabinets and barrier isolators is a popular alternative to ethylene oxide (EtO) as a safer, more efficient decontamination method. H₂O₂ has long been widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. In aerospace research, H₂O₂ is used to sterilize artificial satellites and space probes.

The U.S. FDA has granted 510(k) clearance to use H₂O₂ in individual medical device manufacturing applications. EtO criteria outlined in ANSI/AAMI/ISO 14937 may be used as a validation guideline. Sanyo was the first manufacturer to use the H₂O₂ process in situ in a cell culture incubator, which is a faster and more efficient cell culture sterilization process.