ethyl acetate application blog banner
Food General Paint & Coatings

What is Ethyl Acetate Used For?

We have already discussed Ethyl Acetate and its basic properties, in this article let’s jump into some other properties of Ethyl Acetate.

We had also gone through Ethyl Acetate polarity as to whether it is a polar or nonpolar compound. And the discussion finally ended concluding Ethyl Acetate as a Polar Compound.

A point in the previous article was also made under the topic Ethyl Acetate density which was said to be less than that of water. In other words, if it is mixed in water, it will float on it.

One more topic which was discussed is regarding Ethyl Acetate Formula due to which we could find out the polarity of Ethyl Acetate.

Enough of the revision of previous articles, now let’s talk about its applications.

Ethyl Acetate Applications

Many people must not be knowing, but ethyl acetate has a lot of applications. Ethyl acetate is a commonly used product due to its low cost and one other property is its aroma. 

It is a commonly used product in glue, paints, perfume, paint confections, and so on. It has applications mainly in commercial and industrial areas. The solvent in one of its major uses. Almost about 70% of ethyl acetate produced is used as a solvent in inks, coatings for airplanes, varnishes, and lacquers. 

It has its roots in the production of plastics too. Ethyl acetate has importance even in artificial fiber, artificial leather and as an adhesive in pearls(artificial).

Most important of all, the purity of Ethyl acetate determines its uses. At lower purity, it can be used for some small applications whereas at higher purity it is used in large scale industries.

Coating industries are a major application of ethyl acetate, not only limited to the coating industry it is also used in printing, food, wine, and many other industries.

As attractive as its application is, it also has some preventions as to how to handle ethyl acetate and whether it is alright if humans consume it.

In industries where a large amount of ethyl acetate is stored, there must be a set of measures to be taken so as to not get infected by it, which clearly states that it’s not safe for the human touch in its pure form.

One fact to be noted here is inhalation, eye contact, skin contact or even consumption of ethyl acetate is proven to have adverse effects on humans.

These facts are in comparison with the pure form of ethyl acetate. After processing it is safe for humans.

Ethyl acetate uses can also be found in chemistry labs, where we usually observed dead insects kept in boxes for observation purposes. It is not hygroscopic but keeps insects soft so that proper mounting of it can be done for insect collection.

Leave a Reply