Isopropyl alcohol, Isopropanol

Colorless, transparent, flammable liquid with an ethanol-like odor. Miscible with water, ethanol, ether and chloroform.

Isopropyl alcohol is an important chemical product and raw material. It is mainly used as a dehydrating agent and cleaning agent in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, plastics, spices, coatings and electronic industries.

In circuit board manufacturing, it is used as a cleaning agent and to make PCB holes conductive. Additionally, it is used for cleaning other electronic devices, including cleaning disc cases, floppy drives, magnetic tapes, and the laser heads of CD or DVD player disc drives.

Isopropyl alcohol can also be used as a solvent in flexo, offset, and gravure printing, and as an equipment cleaner. This ingredient is also often included in inks. It is also an important solvent for laboratory dilution and extraction. In addition, isopropyl alcohol is used as a gasoline additive and as a deicer for fuel lines.

In the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, isopropyl alcohol is used in the manufacture of scrubs, hand and body lotions, antiseptics, and pharmaceutical redness removers. It is also used in paints, thinners, coatings, cleaners and polishes, as well as surface sterilization, hospital disinfection, food processing plants, etc.

Isopropyl alcohol is used as a low-cost solvent in many industrial and consumer products and as an extraction agent, in many cases replacing ethanol. Isopropyl alcohol is also used as a solvent for oils and colloids, and in the manufacture of fishmeal feed concentrates. Low-quality isopropyl alcohol is used in automobile fuel.

The use of isopropyl alcohol as a feedstock for acetone production is declining. Several compounds are synthesized using isopropyl alcohol, such as isopropyl ester, methyl isobutyl ketone, isopropylamine, diisopropyl ether, isopropyl acetate, thymol and many esters. Isopropyl alcohol is available in different qualities depending on the end use. The conventional quality of anhydrous isopropyl alcohol is over 99%, while the content of specialty grade isopropyl alcohol is over 99.8% (used in flavors and pharmaceuticals).