A sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of dithiocarbamate fungicide and its application in environmental samples

A sensitive spectrophotometric method based on the evolution of CS2 and colour development by leuco crystal violet is described for the determination of dithiocarbamate fungicides, e.g. thiram, ziram and zineb. Dithiocarbamate fungicides release CS2 on acid hydrolysis. This CS2 is absorbed in ethanolic sodium hydroxide and forms xanthate. The xanthate formed is subsequently treated with potassium iodate and N-chlorosuccinimide, during which free iodine is liberated. Crystal violet dye was formed through selective oxidation of leuco crystal violet by liberated iodine, which has an absorbance maxima at 595 nm. The colour systems obey Beer's law in the range of 0.02-0.20, 0.02-0.24 and 0.04-0.32 ppm for thiram, ziram and zineb respectively. The molar absorptivity of the colour system were found to be 9.6 x 10(5), 1.1 x 10(6) and 6.8 x 10(5) +/- 100 1 mol(-1) cm(-1) for thiram, ziram and zineb respectively. The method has been successfully applied to the determination of these dithiocarbamate fungicides in various environmental samples. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.