Capillary zone electrophoresis determination of aliphatic alcohols derivatised to their dithiocarbonates using phase transfer catalysis

Seven aliphatic alcohols were derivatized to dithiocarbonates under phase t ransfer catalysis by tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulphate and directly dete rminated by capillary zone electrophoresis. A satisfactory separation was a chieved within 6 min. Theoretical plates ranging from 500,000 to 136,000 we re achieved. The analysis was carried on a bare fused-silica capillary with an electrolyte of 10 mM berate buffer (pH 9.2) and detection at 300 nm. Ca libration graphs were linear. The reproducibility in terms of the migration times was less than 0.3% R.S.D. and in terms of corrected peak area was be tter than 5% R.S.D. The detection limits ranged from 1.470 mu g/ml to 7.906 mu g/mL for alcohols of different chain length.