5-Tert-butyl-2-hydroxy-benzaldehyde oxime (L-1) and 3,5-di-tert-butyl-2-hydroxy-benzaldehydeoxime (L-2) are synthesized and characterized by conventional spectroscopic methods. These ligands are used as modifier of octadecyl silica membrane disks for separation and pre-concentration of trace amounts of copper(II) ions, followed by sulfuric or nitric acid elution and flame atomic absorption spectrometric (FAAS) determination. The effect of parameters influencing the extraction efficiency i.e. pH of sample solutions, amount of the oxime, type and volume of eluent, sample solution and eluent flow rates were evaluated. Under optimum experimental conditions, the maximum capacity of the membrane disks modified by 6 mg of L-1 or 4 mg of L-2 was found to be 284.7 (+/- 2.8) mu g of copper and 382.5 (+/- 3.1) mu g of copper, respectively. The detection limits of the presented methods are 0.29 ng ml(-1) for L-1 and 0.25 ng ml(-1) for L-2. The enrichment factors are greater than 400 for both cases. These methods were successfully applied to the extraction, recovery and detection of copper in different water samples. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.