Applications
Xylene is used as a solvent in pharmaceutical, printing, rubber and leather industries. It is an important component of ink, rubber and adhesives as well as thinning paints and varnishes. It is used in the laboratory to make baths with dry ice to cool reaction vessels and as a solvent to remove synthetic immersion oil from the microscope objective in light microscopy. It finds application as a short-term hydrophobic clearing agent of tissue samples by histologists. It is a precursor for the preparation of xylene dichlorides, xylyl bromide, terephthalic acid and dimethyl terephthalate. It acts as a cleaning agent for steel, silicon wafers and integrated circuits.

Solubility
Miscible with aromatic hydrocarbons. Immiscible with water.

Notes
Contains a mixture of the ortho, meta, and para isomers of xylene. May also contain ethylbenzene. Incompatible with strong oxidizing agents.