Monitoring and confirming primary alkylamines via a simple derivatisation procedure

Carbon disulphide reacts readily with primary alkylamines to yield dithiocarbamates. When injected into the heated injection port of a gas chromatograph, the dithiocarbamates yield the corresponding isothiocyanates. This reaction provides a simple and elegant derivatisation for quantifying, and also confirming the identify of, the primary alkylamines.