Faculty of Chemistry producing sanitizer

The corona crisis produced a huge demand for sanitizer which has yet to die down. Therefore, on 11 March the Rectorate asked the Faculty of Chemistry if it could switch to producing sanitizer. This request was forwarded to the Institute of Organic Chemistry, which has the necessary source materials as well as a modern filing station in its chemicals dispensary. Since a decentralized production had been permitted following a general ruling by the Federal Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and simple formulae had been published, this request was answered in the affirmative. During the preparatory work for supplying the university, an urgent request was received on 19 March from the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in the state of Baden-Württemberg for sanitizer to use in the newly-created fever ambulances and emergency medical care, which was no longer available on the market. In order to relieve the bottleneck, the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart worked for and alongside the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of Baden-Württemberg and with the active supervision of chemists to produce large quantities of urgently-needed hand sanitizer. This required working with due care and attention regarding the quality of the source materials.