Seven aliphatic alcohols were derivatized to dithiocarbonates under phase transfer catalysis by tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulphate and directly determinated by capillary zone electrophoresis. A satisfactory separation was achieved within 6 min. Theoretical plates ranging from 500,000 to 136,000 were achieved. The analysis was carried on a bare fused-silica capillary with an electrolyte of 10 mM borate buffer (pH 9.2) and detection at 300 nm. Calibration 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 better than 5% R.S.D. The detection limits ranged from 1.470 μg/ml to 7.906 μg/mL for alcohols of different chain length.