Monoisopropanolamine

Monoisopropanolamine (MIPA) carries one amino group and one hydroxyl group on a three-carbon, methyl-branched backbone, made from propylene oxide and ammonia rather than ethylene oxide and ammonia. Its harmonised EU CLP classification (Index 603-082-00-1) is notably severe for a simple alkanolamine: Skin Corr. 1B (H314, which subsumes serious eye damage), Acute Tox. 4 oral (H302), and a combustible-liquid statement (H227) -- a classification comparable in severity to Monoethanolamine's and genuinely more severe than Triethanolamine's self-classified profile elsewhere in this range.

We want to flag two assumptions we checked and did not confirm, rather than extend MEA's uses to MIPA by simple analogy. MIPA is documented for neutralising fatty acids and sulfonic-acid surfactants, as a buffering agent in personal-care formulations, in metalworking fluids and waterborne coatings, as a TiO2-pigment production aid, in polyurethane production, and as a pharmaceutical intermediate (for example, in the synthesis of the local anaesthetic hexylcaine). We checked specifically for a gas-treating (CO2/H2S scrubbing) role and a cement/construction-admixture role — both plausible by analogy with the ethanolamines and with the cement-chemistry literature's isopropanolamine-family compounds — and found neither confirmed in the sources we reviewed for MIPA specifically; the cement-chemistry literature instead names a different, hybrid molecule (DEIPA, diethanolisopropanolamine) in that role, not plain MIPA. We don't carry either unconfirmed use onto this page.

Where it fits in the synthesis chain

We supply Monoisopropanolamine itself as a surfactant-neutralisation, metalworking-fluid, and pharmaceutical-intermediate chemical. We do not manufacture or supply finished personal-care formulations, coatings, or pharmaceutical products made from it.

Grades we supply

99%+ technical grade is the standard commercial offering.

Monoisopropanolamine is made industrially by reaction of propylene oxide with aqueous ammonia, the propylene-oxide analogue of the ethylene-oxide-based ethanolamine process used for MEA/DEA/TEA.

The mono/di/tri (MIPA/DIPA/TIPA) product distribution is controlled analogously, by the ammonia-to-propylene-oxide molar ratio, with excess ammonia favouring this mono-substituted product.

The crude product is separated from its di- and tri-substituted co-products by distillation, then tested for purity and colour before packing.

Two uses we checked for and did not confirm, rather than assumed by analogy

It would be easy to assume MIPA shares MEA's gas-treating role and TEA's cement-admixture role, simply because they are chemically parallel compounds in neighbouring amine families. We checked both specifically. Neither current gas-treating technical source we reviewed names MIPA among commercially significant amines for CO2/H2S scrubbing. The cement-chemistry literature names a different, hybrid compound (DEIPA) in the admixture role sometimes loosely associated with isopropanolamines generally, not plain MIPA. We report MIPA's confirmed uses -- surfactant neutralisation, metalworking fluids, coatings, TiO2 production, pharmaceutical intermediate chemistry -- rather than extend uses from its relatives by assumption.