[1] Many secondary amines react with carbon disulfide and sodium hydroxide to form dithiocarbamate salts:[2] Ammonia reacts with CS2 similarly: Dithiocarbamate salts are pale colored solids that are soluble in water and polar organic solvents.
Dithiocarbamates are described by invoking resonance structures that emphasize the pi-donor properties of the amine group.
This bonding arrangement is indicated by a short C–N distance and the coplanarity of the NCS2 core as well as the atoms attached to N.[6] Because of the pi-donation from nitrogen, dithiocarbamates are more basic than structurally related anions such as dithiocarboxylates and xanthates.
Zinc dithiocarbamates are used to modify the crosslinking of certain polyolefins with sulfur, a process called vulcanization.
[8] In the United States they began to be registered for use in the late 1950s and early 1960s and were quickly put to work on sooty blotch and flyspeck.