Spectrophotometric Determination of Copper(II) at Low μg 1-1 Levels Using Cation-Exchange Microcolumn in Flow-Injection

Abstract

A simple spectrophotometric flow-injection method is reported for the highly sensitive and fast determination of copper(II). The method is based on the formation of coloured Cu(II)-(4-methylpiperidinedithiocarbamate)<inf>2</inf> complex when the copper solutions are introduced into a tertiary reagent stream containing 4-methylpiperidinedithiocarbamate. The coloured complex is then selectively monitored at 435 nm. To increase interactions between copper(II) and colour forming reagent and preconcentrate of copper(II), a microcolumn containing strong cation exchange resins was placed between injection manifold and spectrophotometer. The system required no mixing chamber and allowed a sample throughput > 60 sample h-1. The calibration graph was linear in the range 5-100 μg 1-1. The detection limit was < 0.5 μg 1-1 for 20 μl injection volume of copper(II) ion solution. The developed method was applied to environmental, copper processing water, and ore samples.