Triethylamine #CAS121-44-8

Triethylamine  #CAS121-44-8

Triethylamine is a flammable liquid and a dangerous fire hazard. It can affect you when inhaled and by passing through the skin. Contact can severely irritate and bum the skin and eyes with possible eye damage. Exposure can irritate the eyes, nose and throat. Inhaling can irritate the lungs. Higher exposures may cause a build-up of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema), a medical mergency. It may cause a skin allergy and affect the liver and kidneys.

Triethylamine is a colorless to yellowish liquid with a strong ammonia to fish-like odor. It is a base commonly used in organic chemistry to prepare esters and amides from acyl chlorides. Like other tertiary amines,it catalyzes the formation of urethane foams and epoxy resins.

Clear, colorless to light yellow flammable liquid with a strong, penetrating, ammonia-like odor. Experimentally determined detection and recognition odor threshold concentrations were <400 μg/m3 (<100 ppbv) and 1.1 mg/m3 (270 ppbv), respectively (Hellman and Small, 1974). An odor threshold concentration of 0.032 ppbv was determined by a triangular odor bag method (Nagata and Takeuchi, 1990).

Application of Triethylamine 

Triethylamine is a base used to prepare esters and amides from acyl chlorides as well as in the synthesis of quaternary ammonium compounds. It acts as a catalyst in the formation of urethane foams and epoxy resins, dehydrohalogeantion reactions, acid neutralizers for condensation reactions and Swern oxidations. It finds application in reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a mobile-phase modifier. It is also used as an accelerator activator for rubber, as a propellant, as a corrosion inhibitor, as a curing and hardening agent for polymers and for the desalination of seawater. Furthermore, it is used in the automotive casting industry and the textile industry.

Triethylamine (TEA, Et3N) is an aliphatic amine. It is used to catalytic solvent in chemical synthesis; accelerator activators for rubber; wetting, penetrating, and waterproofing agents of quaternary ammonium types; curing and hardening of polymers (e.g., corebinding resins); corrosion inhibitor; propellant.
Triethylamine has been used during the synthesis of:
5′-dimethoxytrityl-5-(fur-2-yl)-2′-deoxyuridine
3′-(2-cyanoethyl)diisopropylphosphoramidite-5′-dimethoxytrityl-5-(fur-2-yl)-2′-deoxyuridine
polyethylenimine600-β-cyclodextrin (PEI600-β-CyD)
It may be used as a homogeneous catalyst for the preparation of glycerol dicarbonate, via transesterification reaction between glycerol and dimethyl carbonate (DMC).

Moderately toxic by ingestion and skin contact. Mildly toxic by inhalation. Human systemic effects: visual field changes. Experimental reproductive effects. Mutation data reported. A skin and severe eye irritant. Can cause kidney and liver damage. A very dangerous fire hazard when exposed to heat, flame, or oxidizers. Explosive in the form of vapor when exposed to heat or flame. Complex with dinitrogen tetraoxide explodes below 0°C when undduted with solvent. Exothermic reaction with maleic anhydride above 150°C. Can react with oxidzing materials. Incompatible with N2O4. To fight fire, use CO2, dry chemical, alcohol foam. When heated to decomposition it emits toxic fumes of NOx.

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