Acetonitrile CAS 75-05-8

CAS No.75-05-8
Other Name:
Methyl cyanide;
Cyanomethane
MF:C2H3N

Acetonitrile, also known as methyl cyanide, is a colorless liquid that is volatile and has a special odor similar to ether. It has excellent solvent properties and can dissolve various organic, inorganic, and gaseous substances. It has certain toxicity and is infinitely soluble with water and alcohol. Acetonitrile can undergo typical nitrile reactions and is used to prepare many typical nitrogen-containing compounds, making it an important organic intermediate. Acetonitrile can be used as a solvent for the synthesis of vitamin A, cortisone, carboamine drugs and their intermediates, as well as as an active medium solvent for the production of vitamin B1 and amino acids. It can replace chlorinated solvents. Used in vinyl coatings, as well as as as extractants for fatty acids, alcohol denaturants, butadiene extractants, and solvents for acrylonitrile synthetic fibers. It also has many uses in fabric dyeing, lighting, fragrance manufacturing, and photosensitive material manufacturing.

Main Usage:

Chemical analysis and instrumental analysis

Acetonitrile has been used as an organic modifier and solvent in thin layer chromatography, paper chromatography, spectroscopy, and spectral analysis in recent years. Due to the fact that high-purity acetonitrile does not absorb ultraviolet light between 200nm and 400nm, a developing application is as a solvent for high-performance liquid chromatography HPLC, which can achieve analytical sensitivity up to 10-9 levels.

Solvent for hydrocarbon extraction and separation

Acetonitrile is a widely used solvent, mainly used as a solvent for extraction distillation to separate butadiene from C4 hydrocarbons. Acetonitrile is also used for the separation of other hydrocarbons, such as propylene, isoprene, and methylacetylene, from hydrocarbon fractions. Acetonitrile is also used for some special separations, such as extracting and separating fatty acids from vegetable oil and fish liver oil, to make the treated oil light, pure, and improve its odor, while maintaining the same vitamin content. Acetonitrile is also widely used as a solvent in the pharmaceutical, pesticide, textile, and plastic sectors. [3]

Intermediates of synthetic medicine and pesticides

Acetonitrile can be used as an intermediate in the synthesis of various pharmaceuticals and pesticides. In medicine, it is used to synthesize a series of important drug intermediates such as vitamin B1, metronidazole, ethambutol, aminophenidate, adenine, and dithiocarbamate; In pesticides, it is used to synthesize pesticide intermediates such as pyrethroid insecticides and acetoxim.

Acetonitrile is a strong organic solvent that has good solubility in oils, inorganic salts, organic compounds, and polymer compounds. It can clean off grease, wax, fingerprints, corrosive agents, and flux residues on silicon wafers. Therefore, high-purity acetonitrile can be used as a semiconductor cleaning agent.

Other applications:

In addition to the above applications, acetonitrile can also be used as a component of organic synthesis raw materials, catalysts, or transition metal complex catalysts. In addition, acetonitrile is also used in fabric dyeing and coating composites, and it is also an effective stabilizer for chlorinated solvents.