Chloroform is a colorless, volatile chlorinated organic solvent whose vapors have a narcotic effect. It is susceptible to degradation with time, which can be suppressed by adding ethanol as a stabilizer. Since ethanol is added in higher concentration it leads to increase in polarity which may have a potential influence on some of the applications. Low water content, minimal residue and clean UV spectra are the special characteristics of this biotech grade solvent. It can be utilized for biotechnological processes like protein sequencing, peptide and oligonucleotide synthesis. Reports suggest that chloroform stabilized with ethanol reduces chances on creating artifacts during the chromatographic separation after extraction of anthracyclines from biological matrices.

Chloroform may be used in the following processes:

• Synthesis of colloidal hydrophobic CdSe core nanocrystals (quantum dots).
• Preparing phospholipid solutions.
• As a solvent in the photolysis reaction of ruthenium complexes.
• Solvent for recrystallization.
• Reference compound to detect the presence of chloroform in Tobacco smokes.
• Extractant in solvent extraction process.