Capillary electrophoretic determination of dithiocarbamates and ethyl xanthate

A simple and sensitive capillary electrophoretic method was developed for the separation and determination of sodium methyldithiocarbamate (metham), manganese ethylenebisdithiocarbamate (maneb) and ethyl xanthate in boric acid buffer by direct UV absorbance detection at λ = 254 nm. The separation is dependent on pH and nature of the buffer. The detection limits (S/N = 3) are 1.7 × 10^–6 mol/L for ethyl xanthate, 1.3 × 10^–6 mol/L for metham and 2.1 × 10^–6 mol/L for maneb. The method has been successfully applied to the analysis of wheat samples spiked with maneb and in a commercial sample.