Ask a Chemist: How does handwashing kill coronavirus? | Kate the Chemist | Big Think

One thing that I found that was super interesting is that this virus actually has a really weak membrane on the outside.

Since the membrane is actually kind of weak, when we wash our hands, it's not really the soap that's telling the virus. It's that action; it's the movement that you're doing with your hands. So, when you scrub really hard, you're actually ripping apart that membrane since it's so weak.

It's that 20 seconds of scrubbing, of using your fingernails and using a scrub brush to actually clean and rip that virus apart, so that your hands therefore can be clean when you do a final rinse. That wash rinses the virus off.

The cool part about our soap is that it has two different sides. It's hydrophilic and it's hydrophobic. So, the hydrophobic part is the part that actually binds to that virus.

So, it hangs on to it kind of like a middle-school crush. Like you grab on to someone and hang on; you don't really play. That's what the hydrophobic side does. It grabs that virus and hangs on.

The hydrophilic side is the side that actually likes water. So, when the water turns on, the hydrophilic side grabs on to the water molecules. The hydrophobic side grabs on to the virus.

Each one has a job: one hangs on to the water, one hangs on with a virus. Then that entire molecule section is going to drop down, is off your hand, down the water stream into the sink.

So, the scrubbing motion breaks the virus apart. Then the soap itself bonds to the water and the virus to remove it completely from your hand to make sure you're completely safe.

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