Use
Diisobutylamine can be produced by the reaction of ammonia and butanol over a
dehydration catalyst at high temperature and pressure (Hawley 1977). Alternatively,
ammonia, butanol, and hydrogen can be passed over a dehydrogenation
catalyst. In 1976, 18,000 tons of diisobutylamine were produced (Schweizer et al
1978). Diisobutylamine is also naturally present in foods and soil.
As with other secondary amines, diisobutylamine can be nitrosated to form the
highly toxic (Olah 1975) N-nitrosodiisobutylamine (Guttenplan 1987; Vlasenko et
al 1981; Spiegeholder et al 1978). Thus, nitrosation of commercial preparations of
diisobutylamine occurs on standing, presumably by reaction with nitrogen oxides
in the air (Spiegelhalder et al 1978) and N-nitrosodiisobutylamine has been found
in various fishery products (Kawabata et al 1974) and other foods (Osborne 1972;
Telling 1972).