Monitoring of copper level in water and soil samples by using liquid-liquid extraction.

A new, simple, sensitive, and selective spectrophotometric method for the determination of copper in water and soil samples has been demonstrated. The method is based on the reaction of Cu(I) with neocuproine (2,9-dimethyl-1, 10-phenanothroline) and extracted with N-phenyl benzimidoylthiourea in chloroform. The value of molar absorptivity of the complex in the term of Cu(I) is 1.45 x 10(5) L mol(-1)cm(-1) at lambda(max) 460 nm in chloroform. The detection limit of copper in water and soil is 2 ng mL(-1) and 4 ng g(-1), respectively. The method is free from the interference of the ions commonly found to be associated with the copper determination in water and soil samples. The application of the proposed method has been successfully tested for the determination of copper in different types of water and soil samples.