Although cyanides are present in small concentrations in plants and micro-organisms, 1,2 their large-scale presence in the environment is attributed to human activities, because cyanide compounds are extensively used in industry. The cyanides are widely used in electroplating, in precious metal refining, the manufacture of organic chemicals and in many other processes.

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A spectrophotometric method is developed for the determination of traces of copper(II), based on the catalytic oxidative coupling reaction of 3-hydroxyacetanilide with 3-methyl-2-benzothiazolinone hydrazone in the presence of ammonia and hydrochloric acid. Beer's law is obeyed in the copper(II) concentration range of 0.008-0.16 microg mL(-1), and the molar absorptivity at 530 nm is 2.5x10(5) L mol(-1) cm(-1). The Sandell's sensitivity of the product is 0.000254 microg cm(-2). The optimum reaction conditions and other important analytical parameters have been investigated. The proposed method is applied to the analysis of water and soil samples and the results are compared with the literature method.