Characterized by a very high boiling point, it is primarily used as a high-boiling solvent for high-temperature baking enamels and printing inks, as well as a coalescing agent for latex paints. Due to its slow evaporation rate, it serves as a solvent for screen printing inks and for polystyrene-based coatings and printing glazes. It can also be used as an azeotropic agent for the separation of alcohols and ketones.

Ethylene glycol diacetate is an ester with the general chemical properties of esters. In the presence of caustic alkalis or inorganic acids, it readily hydrolyzes to an alcohol and acetic acid.

It is used in the pharmaceutical industry and as an organic ester curing agent for foundry resins; it also serves as an excellent solvent for various organic resins—particularly nitrocellulose—and as a raw material for leather polishes. In the paint and coating industry, it is used as a solvent for nitro-lacquers, printing inks, and fluorescent coatings.

Due to its excellent properties—such as a high boiling point, high flash point, low evaporation rate, and low toxicity—it is used in the formulations of paints, coatings, and printing inks to retard drying and achieve a high-gloss finish.

DPMA is a low-odor solvent with low polarity and low viscosity. It has a mild ether odor, strong solvency, moderate evaporation and good coupling ability, and dissolves acrylic, epoxy, alkyd and polyester resins.