Ethylene chlorohydrine is a clear, colourless liquid with mild, ethereal odour. It reacts with
alkali metals. Ethylene chlorohydrine has applications as a laboratory reagent and as a
pharmaceutical intermediate. Ethylene chlorohydrine is a building block in the production
of pharmaceuticals, biocides, and plasticisers, used for manufacture of thiodiglycol, an
important solvent for cellulose acetate and ethyl cellulose, textile-printing dyes, extraction
of pine lignin, in dewaxing, refining of rosin, and the cleaning of machines. Several dyes
are prepared by the alkylation of aniline derivatives with chloroethanol.
