Extraction and Determination of Copper(II) in Seafood Using an Acetone-(NH4)2SO4 Aqueous Two-Phase System

An aqueous two-phase system of acetone and (NH4)2SO4 mixture has been developed for the extractive separation of copper (Cu). The complex formed by Cu(II) and Nuclear Fast Red was found to be extracted into the acetone-rich upper phase, and the absorbance of the complex was determined at 465 nm. Beer’s law was obeyed over the concentration range of ~0.6–3.2 mg/l for Cu(II) with a good linearity. The proposed method has been applied to the separation and determination of Cu(II) in seafood samples with a coefficient of variation less than 2.8%. The recovery obtained was ~96.3–101.7%.