Ethyl mercaptan — ethanethiol, C2H5SH — is the compound that gives LPG, propane and butane their warning smell. The fuels themselves are odourless; the mercaptan is what makes an escape noticeable. It is perceptible in air at about 0.36 parts per billion, so a very small dose marks a leak long before the mixture reaches a flammable concentration.
LPG, propane and butane odorisation. This is the compound's principal use worldwide, and the reason most people have smelled it without knowing its name.
Natural gas odorant blends. Ethyl mercaptan is used as a mercaptan component alongside heavier thiols and sulfides rather than on its own. Which components a blend carries is a judgement about four properties that no single molecule maximises together — vapour pressure, odour character, soil penetrability and resistance to oxidation. That trade-off is set out in choosing a gas odorant, and tetrahydrothiophene (THT) is the cyclic sulfide most European networks reach for instead.
Organic synthesis. An ethylthio building block in agrochemical and pharmaceutical intermediates, and the precursor to sodium ethanethiolate.
Stench gas for mine warning systems. Released into ventilation air to signal an evacuation underground, where a smell travels where a siren does not.
Molecular formula: C2H6S Molecular weight: 62.13 g/mol EC number: 200-837-3 Boiling point: 35 °C Melting point: -148 °C Density: 0.8617 g/cm3 at 20 °C Vapour pressure: 442 mmHg at 20 °C Solubility in water: 0.7% at 20 °C Flash point: -48 °C Odour detection threshold: 0.36 parts per billion in air
The specification is the producer's. The physical properties below it are reference values for the pure compound, not contracted limits. The lot COA is issued against the specification and goes out with the quotation.
Packaging
210 liter steel barrel
ISO Tank
Supply and Dangerous-Goods Documentation
Ethyl mercaptan is supplied from producers we have qualified, with the lot COA and MSDS checked against your specification before the material ships. It is a Class 3 dangerous good — UN 2363, Packing Group I — so every consignment leaves under a DG declaration in UN-certified packaging, and that documentation is prepared here rather than left to the forwarder. Tell us the fuel it is being dosed into, the volume and the destination port, and we will quote against it. EMAIL US for more details
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Reference data for ethanethiol from PubChem, the world's largest free chemistry database, and from Wikipedia.
