Determination of ultra trace levels of copper in food samples by a highly sensitive adsorptive stripping voltammetric method

A new method is presented, for the determination of copper, based on adsorptive stripping voltammetry of the complex of copper with thiosemicarbazide at a hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE). The most suitable operating conditions and parameters, such as pH, accumulation potential, deposition time, ligand concentration and scan rate, were selected. The calibration graph for copper (II) was linear over the concentration range 0.01–90.0 ng/ml; the detection limit of the method was 0.007 ng/ml. The interferences of some common ions were studied and the method was found suitable for the determination of copper (II) in rice, tea, tomato, blood and water samples. Moreover, with the use of the proposed method, there is a considerable improvement in the detection limit, the linear dynamic range and the deposition time, compared with the methods other than adsorptive stripping voltammetry for the determination of copper.