On-line Copper Removal for Se Determination by Hydride generation-Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry.

M. KAPLAN, R.A. GIL, S.CERUTTI, J.A. GÁSQUEZ, R.A. OLSINA, L.D. MARTINEZ

Barquisimeto, Venezuela

Simposio; IX Rio Symposium; 2006

Selenium was determined in samples with a high cooper contents by hydride generation-inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (HG-ICP OES) after flow injection (FI) on-line copper removal and selenium (VI) reduction. An activated carbon minicolumn was used for the separation of selenium from copper. Se (VI) was then reduced on-line by heating a PTFE coiled reactor with 12 M HCl, and introduced into water stream containing sodium tetrahydroborate (NaBH4) in order to generate selenium (IV) hydride (SeH4). The detection limit (DL) obtained was 0.8 µg L-1, and the precision expressed by the relative standard deviation (RSD) was 2.5 % (n = 11) for a 10 µg L-1 selenium level. The present method was satisfactorily applied to Se determination in two copper reference materials.