Detailed Product Description:

Clear, colorless, odorless, viscous liquid.  Miscible in water, alcohol,

and other organic solvents.  Most commonly used as a solvent, binder,

base for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, mold lubricants, permissible

additive to foods.  PEG is soluble in water, methanol, benzene,

dichloromethane and is insoluble in diethyl ether and hexane.  It can

be coupled to hydrophobic molecules to produce non-ionic surfactants.

Product Grade/Purity/Brand:

PEG-200 (200 Daltons)

Reagent Grade with minimum 99.5% purity.  Manufactured by J.T. Baker

Background:

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), also known as poly(ethylene oxide)

(PEO) or polyoxyethylene (POE), is the most commercially important

type of polyether.  The acronyms, PEG, PEO or POE refer to an oligomer

or polymer of ethylene oxide.  The three names are chemically synonymous,

but historically PEG has tended to refer to oligomers and polymers with a

molecular mass below 20,000 g/mol.  PEO refers to polymers with a

molecular mass above 20,000 g/mol.  POE refers to a polymer of any molecular

mass.

PEG and PEO are liquids or low-melting solids, depending on their molecular

weights.  PEGs are prepared by polymerization of ethylene oxide and are

commercially available over a wide range of molecular weights from 300 g/mol

to 10,000,000 g/mol.

While PEG and PEO with different molecular weights find use in different

applications and have different physical properties (e.g. viscosity) due to chain

length effects, their chemical properties are nearly identical.

Different forms of PEG are also available dependent on the initiator used for the

polymerization process.  The most common of which is a monofunctional methyl

ether PEG (methoxypoly(ethylene glycol)), abbreviated mPEG.

PEGs are also available with different geometries.  Branched PEGs have 3 to 10

PEG chains emanating from a central core group.  Star PEGs have 10 - 100 PEG

chains emanating from a central core group.  Comb PEGs have multiple PEG

chains normally grafted to a polymer backbone.

Their melting points vary depending on the Formula Weight of the polymer.

PEG or PEO has the following structure:

HO-(CH2-CH2-O-)n-H

The numbers that are often included in the names of PEGs indicate their

average molecular weights, e.g. a PEG with n=9 would have an average

molecular weight of approximately 400 daltons and would be labeled PEG 400.

Most PEGs include molecules with a distribution of molecular weights, i.e.

they are polydisperse.  The size distribution can be characterized statistically

by its weight average molecular weight (Mw) and its number average molecular

weight (Mn), the ratio of which is called the polydispersity index (Mw/Mn).

Mw and Mn can be measured by mass spectroscopy.

Precautions:

Combustible.  Download, read, and understand the precautions stated in MSDS

before using this substance.

                Click here to download MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet)

Packaging:

Comes packed in 250ml boston round, amber glass bottle.  Also available in 500ml size.