A simple method for determination of copper contents in natural rubber (NR) latex based on the complex formation between Cu(II) and zinc diethyldithiocarbamate (Zn(II)-DDTC) and extraction with dichloromethane followed by visible spectrophotometry at 435 nm was developed. A low-cost wet digestion system for NR latex was adopted by digesting a sample in a Pyrex tube with the a mixture of concentrated H 2 SO 4 and concentrated HNO 3 at 180°C. Under the optimum conditions, the linear range of

more »

... inear range of 0.1-4.0 mg/l (R 2 > 0.99), the limit of detection and the limit of quantification were 0.0356 and 0.1188 mg/l, respectively, the intra-day (n = 10) and inter-day (n = 6) relative standard deviations were 0.4-3.2 and 0.8-3.4%, respectively, and recoveries of 92-101% were obtained. Fe(III), Mn(II), and Zn(II) did not interfere with the tolerance limit of 9.0, 9.0, and more than 500 mg/l, respectively, which are higher than their usual concentrations in latex. The method was applied to copper determination in a concentrated latex sample prepared from field latex samples by centrifugation. The copper content was found to be 6.8-7.0 mg/kg (on total solids content) and copper content in the field NR latex sample was 16.6-23.8 mg/kg (on total solids content). No difference was observed between the proposed method and ICP-OES as well as between the proposed digestion and Kjeldahl digestion.