HSCH2CH2OH
M.W.: 78.13
Physical State : Liquid
Appearance : Clear colorless to very faint yellow liquid
Odor :  Disagreeable and choking. Powerful nauseating stench, Rotten eggs (Strong)
Purity : ≥99.0%
Solubility : Very soluble in water ;
Miscible with : Water,Alcohol, Ether, Benzene and other organic solvents.

Application:
The liquid has a concentration of 14.3 M (moles/L).
Strong reducing agent, often included in enzyme solutions to protect against catalytic site inactivation due to cysteine sulfhydryl oxidation/disulfide formation; added at final concentrations of 5 and 20 mM, with or without EDTA, as an additional protectant.

Beta-mercaptoethanol (b-ME,BME), is a mild reducing agent for cleaving protein disulfide bonds. It is suitable for reducing protein disulfide bonds prior to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and is usually included in a sample buffer for SDS-PAGE at a concentration of 5%. Cleaving intermolecular (between subunits) disulfide bonds allows the subunits of a protein to separate independently on SDS-PAGE. Cleaving intramolecular (within subunit) disulfide bonds allows the subunits to become completely denatured so that each peptide migrates according to its chain length with no influence due to secondary structure.

 

Widely used for retarding oxidation of biological compounds in solution.

Store at 4℃

The bulk product decomposes slowly in air. 
If kept sealed at room temperature, 2-mercaptoethanol will remain >99% (by GC) for up to three years. Bottles opened frequently may decline at 2% per year.