Equilibrium study of ion-pair extraction of a cationic water-soluble porphyrin [5,10,15,20-tetrakis(1-methylpyridinium-4-yl)porphyrin, H(2)tmpyp(4+)] and its metalloporphyrins (MP) into the acetonitrile layer, separated by addition of sodium chloride (4.00 mol dm(-)(3)) to a 1:1 (v/v) acetonitrile-water mixed solvent, was carried out to develop a new and useful method for the determination of a subnanogram amount of copper(II). M denotes Zn(2+), Cu(2+), Co(3+), Fe(3+), and Mn(3+), and P(2)(-) is porphyrinate ion. The extraction and dissociation constants of the ion-pair complexes, defined by K(ex) = [MP(ClO(4))(4)](org)[MP(4+)](aq)(-)(1)[ClO(4)(-)](aq)(-)(4), K(dis,1) = [MP(ClO(4))(3)(+)](org)[ClO(4)(-)](org)[MP(ClO(4))(4)](org)(-)(1), and K(dis,2) = [MP(ClO(4))(2)(2+)](org)[ClO(4)(-)](org)[MP(ClO(4))(3)(+)](org)(-)(1), were determined by taking into account the partition constant of sodium perchlorate (K(D) = 1.82 ± 0.01). The equilibrium constants were found to be K(ex)K(dis,1) = (7.2 ± 1.3) × 10(4), (6.4 ± 0.9) × 10(4), (1.35 ± 0.13) × 10(5), (4.8 ± 0.6) × 10(3), (1.23 ± 0.05) × 10(4), and (1.42 ± 0.07) × 10(3) at 25 °C for the free base porphyrin (H(2)tmpyp(4+)) and the metalloporphyrins of zinc(II), copper(II), cobalt(III), iron(III), and manganese(III), respectively. The K(dis,2) values were (2.9 ± 1.4) × 10(-)(2), (3.1 ± 1.1) × 10(-)(2), (8.0 ± 4.9) × 10(-)(3), and (5.1 ± 2.2) × 10(-)(2) for the free base porphyrins and the metalloporphyrins of zinc(II), copper(II), and cobalt(III), respectively. The results were developed for determination of a trace amount of copper(II) (3 × 10(-)(8)-4 × 10(-)(6) mol dm(-)(3)) in natural water samples using H(2)tmpyp(4+) with a molar absorptivity of 3.1 × 10(5) mol(-)(1) dm(3) cm(-)(1) at a precision of 1.3% (RSD). The determination of copper(II) was not interfered by the presence of 10(-)(4) mol dm(-)(3) of Mn(2+), Co(2+), Ni(2+), Hg(2+), Cd(2+), Ag(+), Cr(3+), V(5+), Al(3+), Mg(2+), Ca(2+), Br(-), I(-), SCN(-), and S(2)O(3)(2)(-) and 10(-)(5) mol dm(-)(3) of Fe(3+), Zn(2+), and Pd(2+).