It is a colorless liquid with low viscosity and a faint sweet smell in pure form.

It is the main component of cyanoacrylate glues and can be encountered under many trade names.

[2] It is soluble in acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, nitromethane, and methylene chloride.

In forensics, cyanoacrylate ester has excellent non-destructive impressioning abilities, which are especially important when lifting fingerprints from delicate evidence items, or when the prints could not be lifted using traditional means such as fingerprinting powder.

Its fumes then react with deposited proteins that form into a white, stable, and clear print outlines.