The Collaborative International Dictionary
butyl mercaptan \bu"tyl mer*cap"tan\, n. (Chem.) A volatile liquid, C4H9.SH, having a strong odor like that of a skunk; also called butanethiol. All three isomers, normal, sec-, and tert-butanethiol possess the skunk odor.
Wikipedia
Butyl mercaptan may refer to:
- Butanethiol (n-butyl mercaptan)
- tert-Butylthiol (t-butyl mercaptan)
- Used as an additive to Natural Gas (which is almost odourless), to enable its detection by smell when Natural Gas escapes or leaks from its intended purpose.
Usage examples of "butyl mercaptan".
There was butyl mercaptan and rotten celery, excrement, formic acid, decayed meat, and that certain smell which is like the taste of some brasses.
Especially when it's realized that he was the man who developed the strain of scavengers that secrete this modified butyl mercaptan that turns men into paras!
More, they had suddenly regained an invisible aversion to the smell of butyl mercaptan -- even a modified butyl mercaptan -- and it was promptly discovered that no normal who had smelled wood-smoke became a para.
More, they had suddenly regained an invisible aversion to the smell of butyl mercaptan.
I'd felt about the same way in training school when I got my first whiff of butyl mercaptan in the chemistry class and was told a living animal could make and use a similar odor.
Just a harmless mixture of materials like butyl mercaptan, butyric acid, methanethiol, skatole, cadaverine, putrescine .
Campbell very well knew that this was the formula for butyl mercaptan, which gives the skunk its smell, and I very well knew it, too, and Campbell very well knew I knew.
Just a harmless mixture of materials like butyl mercaptan, butyric acid, methanethiol, skatole, cadaverine, putrescine.