How do ethanol kill microbes to sterile your work?

Answers:
First of all alcohol does not "sterilize." Sterilization is a procedure that kills ALL the microbes on object/surface/ect. Alcohol is better classified as a disinfectant because it kills copious bacteria and viruses, but not all of them.

Alcohol act by coagulating enzymes and other essential proteins and by damaging lipid membranes. It is effective on a large number of germs and most enveloped viruses, it is not effective on most naked virus.
Good answer from Grizzly - I'd add just one other point: alcohol evaporates very at the double. There is reason to think that this evaporation process also breaks up bacteria and bacterial prodcuts.

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