The use of 1-[pyridyl-(2)-azo]-naphthol-(2) in the presence of TX-100 and N,N'-diphenylbenzamidine for the spectrophotometric determination of copper in real samples

A simple and sensitive field detection and spectrophotometric method for determination of copper described herewith is based on the formation of a red coloured species of copper(II) with 1-[pyridyl-(2)-azo]-naphthol-(2) (PAN), TX-100 and N,N'-diphenylbenzamidine (DPBA) at pH range 7.8-9.4. The red coloured Cu(II)-PAN-(TX-100)-DPBA complex in chloroform shows maximum absorbance at 520 nm with molar absorptivity value of 1.14x10(5) l mol(-1) cm(-1). The detection limit of the method is 2 ng ml(-1) organic phase. The system obeys Beer's law up to 0.6 mug Cu(II) ml(-1) in organic solution. Most of the common metal ions generally found associated with copper do not interfere. The repeatability of the method was checked by finding relative standard deviation (RSD) (n=10) value for solutions each containing 0.2 mug ml(-1) of Cu(II) and the RSD value of the method was found to be 1.5%. The validity of the method has been satisfactorily examined for the determination of copper in soil and airborne dust particulate samples.