It is used in organic synthesis with use as a nitrating agent and as an intermediate in the preparation of some drugs, dyes, and perfumes.

Ethyl nitrate is found in the atmosphere, where it can react with other gases to form smog.

[2] Reaction of ethanol with nitric acid was investigated since the Middle Ages, but the fact that it produces mostly ethyl nitrite was not discovered until the 19th century.

Eugène Millon was the first to synthesize ethyl nitrate in 1843 by adding urea to the mixture in order to remove any nitrous acid.

[6] Ethyl nitrate has also been prepared by bubbling gaseous nitryl fluoride through ethanol at −10 °C.