This paper reports the development of a method for the determination of copper and iron in jet fuels employing the electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). In order to allow the direct determination of the analytes, the samples were injected into the graphite furnace as detergent emulsions in order to avoid their volatilization during analysis. The results obtained in this work indicated that a stable emulsion can be formed by mixing 1 mL of a 7% m/v Triton X-100 solution containing 10% v/v HNO(3) with 4 mL of jet fuel. The injection of emulsions provided integrated absorbance signals with suitable sensitivity and precision for 300 min at least. The addition of chemical modifier was not necessary because background values were always very low, allowing the use of pyrolysis temperature around 1000 degrees C for both analytes. Both Triton X-100 and HNO(3) concentrations in the solution used to form the emulsion had remarkable influence on the sensitivity as well as the heating rate employed in the drying step. Under the best conditions established in the present work, limits of detection of 0.50 and 0.46 mu g L (1) were observed for copper when oil-based and aqueous standards were added to the emulsions for calibration, respectively. For iron, the limits of detection were 0.88 and 0.90 mu g L (1) for oil-based and aqueous standards, respectively. The method was applied in the determination of Cu and Fe in five samples of jet fuels and a recovery test was performed, producing recovery percentages between 95% and 105%. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.