Spectrophotometric determination of nickel in vegetable oil with ammonium 2-amino-1-cyclohexene-1-dithiocarboate

The reaction between nickel and ammonium 2-amino-1-cyclohexene-1-dithiocarboate in aqueous acetone medium at pH 3.0-8.0 results in a stable dark red complex. The ratio of reagent to nickel in the complex is 2:1 and the formation constant is 7.38 +/- 0.12 x 10(10). Beer's law is obeyed up to 4 microg/ml nickel at the absorption maximum at 535 nm. The apparent molar absorptivity is 2.8 x 10(4) l.mole(-1). cm(-1), and the detection limit is 10 ng/ml nickel. The method is applied to the determination of nickel in vegetable oil.