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DETAIL
Applications
Triethylamine is commonly employed in organic synthesis as a base. For example, it is commonly used as a base during the preparation of esters and amides from acyl chlorides. Such reactions lead to the production of hydrogen chloride which combines with triethylamine to form the salt triethylamine hydrochloride, commonly called triethylammonium chloride. This reaction removes the hydrogen chloride from the reaction mixture, which can be required for these reactions to proceed to completion (R, R' = alkyl, aryl):
Like other tertiary amines, it catalyzes the formation of urethane foams and epoxy resins. It is also useful in dehydrohalogenation reactions and Swern oxidations.
Triethylamine is readily alkylated to give the corresponding quaternary ammonium salt:
Triethylamine is mainly used in the production of quaternary ammonium compounds for textile auxiliaries and quaternary ammonium salts of dyes. It is also a catalyst and acid neutralizer for condensation reactions and is useful as an intermediate for manufacturing medicines, pesticides and other chemicals.
Triethylamine salts like any other tertiary ammonium salts are used as an ion-interaction reagent in ion interaction chromatography, due to their amphiphilic properties. Unlike quaternary ammonium salts, tertiary ammonium salts are much more volatile, therefore mass spectrometry can be used while performing analysis.
Niche uses
Triethylamine is used to give salts of various carboxylic acid-containing pesticides, e.g. Triclopyr and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid[citation needed]
Triethylamine is the active ingredient in FlyNap, a product for anesthetizing Drosophila melanogaster.[citation needed] Triethylamine is used in mosquito and vector control labs to anesthetize mosquitoes. This is done to preserve any viral material that might be present during species identification.
Also, the bicarbonate salt of triethylamine (often abbreviated TEAB, triethylammonium bicarbonate) is useful in reverse phase chromatography, often in a gradient to purify nucleotides and other biomolecules.[citation needed]