Spectrophotometric determination of ziram, ferbam and zineb with diphenylcarbazone

A procedure has been developed for the determination of ziram (zinc dimethyldithiocarbamate), ferbam (ferric dimethyldithiocarbamate) and zineb (zinc ethylenebisdithiocarbamate) after their decomposition and extraction of the diphenylcarbazone complexes of the zinc or iron into isobutyl methyl ketone. These complexes absorb strongly at 520 nm. The method is rapid, sensitive and selective and can be used for the determination of these dithiocarbamates in commercial and synthetic mixtures.