Spectrophotometric measurement of Cu(DDTC)2 for the simultaneous determination of zinc and copper.

A spectrophotometric procedure for the simultaneous determination of zinc(II) and copper(II) in a mixture using diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC) as ligand has been described. Complexes formed with DDTC was extracted with CHCl(3)/CCl(4) and the absorbance was measured at 435 nm which is equivalent of Cu(II) in sample only as Zn(DDTC)(2) has no absorption. Zinc measurement is based on the quantitative displacement of zinc from Zn(DDTC)(2) by Cu(II) with the addition of excess copper(II) to the extract. The absorbance is measured again where additional absorbance is equivalent to zinc. The molar absorptivity and sandall's sensitivity at this wavelength are 2.86×10(5) mol(-1) L cm(-1) and 3.076 ng cm(-2), respectively. Reproducibility with in 4% and detection limits of 0.29 μg mL(-1) was obtained. Linear calibration range was 0.2-14 μg mL(-1) for zinc and 0.2-12 μg mL(-1) for copper with the regression coefficient (r(2)) 0.998 for each. In the presence of a suitable masking agent (EDTA) very good selectivity was achieved. The method was extended to the determination of zinc and copper in a number of environmental water and soil samples, biological, pharmaceutical, fertilizer and food samples.