Diethyl sulfide is a by-product of the commercial production of ethanethiol, which is prepared by the reaction of ethylene with hydrogen sulfide over an alumina-based catalyst.

Diethyl sulfide has been found to be a constituent of the odor of durian fruit[2] and as a constituent found in volatiles from potatoes.

[3] Diethyl sulfide is a Lewis base, classified as a soft ligand (see also ECW model).

Its relative donor strength toward a series of acids, versus other Lewis bases, can be illustrated by C-B plots.

[4][5] With bromine, it forms a salt called diethylbromosulfonium bromide:[6] A typical coordination complex is cis-PtCl2(S(CH2CH3)2)2.