Determination of copper by electrothermal atomisation atomic absorption spectrometry following coprecipitation with hafnium hydroxide

Abstract

Copper (0.1–10 µg) is coprecipitated quantitatively from solution (100–400 ml) with hafnium hydroxide at pH 6–11.7. The peak height of copper in the atomic absorbance measurements remains almost constant in the presence of 0.1–1.6 mg ml^–1 of hafnium. A linear calibration graph was obtained in the range 4–400 ng ml^–1 of copper. The 27 foreign ions investigated did not interfere with the determination in at least a 200-fold mass ratio to copper. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of trace amounts of copper in river water.