2-Mercaptoethanol by MP Biomedicals is a high grade reagent. This reagent is commonly used to reduce disulfide bonds and can act as a biological antioxidant by scavenging hydroxyl radicals. Due to its reduced vapour pressure, its odour is unpleasant, yet less objectionable than related thiols. It has a melting point below 50 C and a boiling point around 154 - 161 C. It is miscible with water, alcohol, ether and benzene. This reagent typically gives clear solutions when diluted 1:1 in water or diluted 2:1 in 1 M Tris buffer. CAS Number: 60-24-2 Quantity provided: 100 ml per bottle Molecular Formula: C2H6OS Molecular Weight: 78.13 Concentration: 14.3 M Miscible with water, alcohol, ether and benzene2-Mercaptoethanol has wide array of applications in chemistry and biological techniques. It is widely used for reducing protein disulfide bonds prior to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and is usually included in a sample buffer for SDS-PAGE. 2-Mercaptoethanol is often included in enzymatic reactions to inhibit the oxidation of free sulfhydryl residues, hence maintaining protein activity. It is also added in some RNA isolation procedures to eliminate ribonuclease released during cell lysis. It is hence incorporated in several enzyme assays as a standard buffer.