Trimethylamine

Description

Trimethylamine (TMA) is the simplest tertiary aliphatic amine. It’s responsible for the pungent odor given off by fish and other marine and aquatic animals. It is also a degradation product of plants that have high nitrogen contents and a distillation product of sugarbeet residues.
Trimethylamine has been known since at least 1878, but it is uncertain as to who discovered and identified it. Several 19th-century patents and journal articles describe its use for converting chloride salts to carbonates and bicarbonates, as a reagent in the dye industry, and in other chemical reactions.
Trimethylamine is a gas at ambient temperature, but it is usually sold as a liquid under pressure or in an aqueous solution. It can be dangerous to handle, as shown in the hazard information table. It is a strong Lewis base that forms adducts with Lewis acids such as borane and other hydrides, metal halides, and related organometallic compounds.
Trimethylamine is used as a basic catalyst, in the preparation of quaternary ammonium hydroxides and salts, and in ion-exchange resins. It is also an important starting material for manufacturing the essential nutrient choline1; conversely, excessive choline intake results in its degradation to TMA in the body.
The 2022 worldwide market value of trimethylamine is estimated at US$109 million. At ≈$2250/t, this year’s production should approach 50,000 tonnes.
1. CAS Reg. No. 62-49-7.

The Uses of Trimethylamine

Trimethylamine is used as a warning agent for natural gas, a synthetic flavor (fish) ingredient, and in the synthesis of photochemicals, choline salts, flotation agents, dyes, pesticides, ion-exchange resins, cationic starches, and intense sweeteners (HSDB 2006).
Organic synthesis, especially of choline salts, warning agent for natural gas, manufacture of disinfectants, flotation agent, insect attractant, quaternary ammonium compounds, plastics.

What are the applications of Application

Trimethylamine solution (ca. 28% in Water, ca. 4.3mol/L) is A potent nucleophile used in production of herbicides, dyes, anion exchange resins and plant growth regulator.