A highly sensitive,rapid,simple and selective adsorptive stripping assay for the determination of trace copper(II)is proposed.The methodology is based on the adsorptive accumulation of copper(II)–1,10- phenanthroline complexes onto aglassy carbon electrode,followed by oxidation of the adsorbed species by voltammetric scanning using square-wave voltammetry.The in fluences of experimental variables on the sensitivity of the proposed method,suchas the effects of pH,ligand concentration, accumulation time,accumulation potential and interferences,were investigated.Under optimal conditions,the proposed method showed linearity from 0.1ngmL1 to 50 ngmL1.The3 S/N detection limits were 0.0185 ngmL1, and the relative standard deviations(n¼10) were 0.09–4.71% for intra-dayand 0.05–7.14% for inter-day analyses,respectively.The application of the proposed method to the direct analysis of food samples yielded results that agreed with those obtained from including inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP–OES)assay saccording to a paired t-test. The
results are a step toward the development of an alternative and reliable analytical
method for food research,which requires the direct determination of copper.