Provided is a surface protectant that suppresses corrosion of a semiconductor wafer surface by a basic compound, and reduces defects in the semiconductor wafer.
The semiconductor wafer surface protectant of the present invention includes a compound represented by Formula (1) below; R1O—(C3H6O2)n—H  (1) where R1 denotes a hydrogen atom, a hydrocarbon group that has from 1 to 24 carbon atoms and may have a hydroxyl group, or a group represented by R2CO, where the R2 denotes a hydrocarbon group having from 1 to 24 carbon atoms; and n indicates an average degree of polymerization of a glycerin unit shown in the parentheses, and is from 2 to 60.