Efficient synthesis of 2-(thiocyanomethylthio)benzothiazole

In the leather industry phenolic-based fungicides have been in use until recently. As a result of legislation limiting the content of pentachlorophenol (PCP) in leather, non-chlorophenolics based on 2-(thiocyanomethylthio)benzothiazole (TCMTB) have become more widely used in the leather industry for controlling the growth of fungi and sulphate-reducing bacteria. This paper reports a clean and simple method of synthesis of TCMTB, which is characterized by conventional methods, IR, 1H NMR and mass spectral data.