Its relatively high viscosity and low volatility are advantageous in coatings, cleansers, cosmetics, solvents, lubricants, and hydraulic fluids.

[13] Since hexylene glycol is compatible with polar and nonpolar molecules, it competes with the solvent in a crystallography experiment causing the protein to precipitate.

[15] When hexylene glycol binds to these different locations, water is removed and the protein crystals anneal, which prevents ice formation during cryocrystallography techniques.

[16] Incorporation of hexylene glycol into solution has been known to improve the resolution of X-ray diffraction making protein structures easily identifiable.

[17] Additionally hexylene glycol is not a strong denaturing agent and thus does not significantly alter the structure of a protein during the crystallography procedure.