2,6-Diethyl-N-Propoxyethyl Aniline

2,6-Diethyl-N-Propoxyethyl Aniline — CDEPA in the agrochemical trade — is 2,6-diethylaniline carried one step further: its nitrogen bears a propoxyethyl substituent in place of one hydrogen, built by reductive amination with 3-propoxypropionaldehyde. It is one step short of the finished herbicide pretilachlor, which is reached by acylating this secondary amine with chloroacetyl chloride.

A note on data availability. Unlike the other products on this site, CDEPA is not a widely traded commodity chemical with a public physical-property record. We checked multiple chemical-supplier and identifier databases and found no independently published melting point, boiling point, density, flash point or EC number for CAS 61874-13-3 — only its structure, molecular formula and the process literature confirming its role in pretilachlor synthesis are documented. We would rather tell you that plainly than publish invented figures. The certificate of analysis issued with your order is the governing reference for the physical and purity parameters of the batch you receive.

Where it fits in the synthesis chain

CDEPA exists almost entirely as a captive intermediate for pretilachlor, a chloroacetanilide herbicide used principally in rice cultivation across Asia. The three-step route runs from sodium propoxide and chloroacetaldehyde dimethyl acetal to 3-propoxypropionaldehyde, which is then reacted with 2,6-diethylaniline under reductive amination to give CDEPA — the compound on this page — and CDEPA is finally acylated with chloroacetyl chloride to give pretilachlor itself. It has essentially no independent demand outside that chain.

Grades we supply

Chelora Chemicals supplies CDEPA to order, with a certificate of analysis covering the parameters we can verify for your batch — structure confirmation, assay and any agreed impurity limits. Because this is a specialty intermediate rather than a stocked commodity, lead times are quoted against campaign availability; tell our desk your required quantity and timeline and we will confirm what can be scheduled.

CDEPA is made from 2,6-diethylaniline by reductive amination with 3-propoxypropionaldehyde: the aldehyde and the amine condense to an imine, which is then reduced under catalytic hydrogenation to give the secondary amine. The aldehyde itself is prepared separately, from sodium n-propoxide reacting with chloroacetaldehyde dimethyl acetal.

The 2,6-diethylaniline that feeds this reaction is made the same way we supply it on its own product page — by catalytic ortho-ethylation of aniline — so the isomer purity of the finished CDEPA traces back to that same upstream step.

After the reductive amination, the crude secondary amine is purified before being carried forward to the chloroacetylation step that gives pretilachlor. Because this is normally run as a captive process within a single integrated plant rather than traded as an intermediate between separate manufacturers, published purification detail is limited.

Why this grade is sold to order rather than stocked

Most agrochemical producers make CDEPA in-house, as the second of three linked steps to pretilachlor, rather than buying it on the open market. That is also why independent physical-property data for it is so thin — it rarely changes hands as a standalone commodity with its own supplier datasheets. We supply it to buyers who want to run the final chloroacetylation step themselves, or who need it as a reference or research-scale intermediate, and we quote and document each order against what can actually be verified for that batch.