The vapour-phase reaction of n-butanol and carbon disulfide was performed in a fixed-bed flow reactor in the presence of a potassium-carbonate-promoted chromia on gamma-alumina catalyst, namely G41P from Girdler. A high selectivity to n-butanethiol (85%) was obtained at 250 C-degrees with a 1 : 1 n-butanol : carbon disulfide molar ratio, a contact time of 6 s and a flow rate of 0.03 ml/min. Under these conditions no isomeric mercaptans were obtained. The amount of secondary products, di-n-butyl sulfide and di-n-butyl disulfide, is relatively low and decreases with decrease of n-butanol conversion. However, the catalyst was shown to deactivate relatively rapidly.