DEA - Diethanolamine

About This Product

Diethanolamine, DEA with formula C4H11NO2 and CAS number 111-42-2, is a viscous liquid or low-melting solid with a mild ammoniacal odour, fully miscible with water and hygroscopic. It carries two hydroxyl groups and one secondary amine. In gas treating it occupies a middle position between MEA and MDEA. It has lower vapour pressure than MEA so solvent losses are smaller, it resists degradation by carbonyl sulphide and carbon disulphide better, and it requires somewhat less regeneration energy, but it is also a weaker base and absorbs more slowly. Its other traditional market, as the feedstock for diethanolamide surfactants and as a neutralising amine in cosmetics, has contracted substantially. Secondary amines can react with nitrosating agents to form N-nitrosodiethanolamine, a compound of toxicological concern, and DEA and its derivatives are consequently restricted in cosmetics in the EU and elsewhere. That is a formulation and regulatory constraint rather than a reflection on the material in industrial gas treating, where the conditions do not arise. It is used in gas sweetening and acid gas removal, surfactant and emulsifier manufacture, metalworking fluids, cement grinding aids and as a corrosion inhibitor. Bio Green Chem supplies DEA to specification on assay, monoethanolamine and triethanolamine content, water, colour and iron.