It has been used as the source of tetraethylammonium ions in pharmacological and physiological studies, but is also used in organic chemical synthesis.

TEAB is commercially available, but can be prepared by the reaction between tetraethylammonium hydroxide and hydrobromic acid: Evaporation of the water and recrystallization from acetonitrile yields a crystalline sample of TEAB.

Briefly, TEAB has been explored clinically for its ganglionic blocking properties,[6] although it is now essentially obsolete as a drug, and it is still used in physiological research for its ability to block K+ channels in various tissues.

[7] The toxicity of TEAB is primarily due to the tetraethylammonium ion, which has been studied extensively.

These data, taken from a study by Randall and co-workers,[8] are provided for comparative purposes; additional details may be found in the entry for Tetraethylammonium.