A simplistic portable LED-Based photometer for in situ determination of copper in sugarcane spirits

Abstract

A low-cost and portable LED-based photometer was developed and applied for in situ determination of copper in sugarcane spirit. The determination was based on the chelation reaction between copper(II) and cuprizone (bis(cyclohexanone)oxalyldihydrazone). After optimizing the best experimental variables, a dynamic linear range to determine copper(II) was linear from 1.0 to 12.0 mg L−1 (r2 = 0.999) with the limits of detection and quantification of 0.20 and 0.70 mg L−1, respectively. The recovery of copper ranged from 96.5 to 104.4%. The paired t test was performed, and the results agreed at 95% level of confidence. The analytical method LED-based photometer demonstrated that it can be employed to determine copper in sugarcane spirit for quality purpose, e.g., small rural producers can evaluate the drink quality before bottling due to the easy handling, portability, fast response, and low-cost of the materials used.