Determination of selenium in marine certified reference materials by hydride generation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Abstract

The determination of Se in sea-water and in a number of marine biological tissue certified reference materials by hydride generation inductively coupled plasma (ICP) mass spectrometry is described. Detection limits of 2.5 pg ml^–1 for Se and 0.3 pg ml^–1 for As were achieved by optimization of operating conditions and systematic reduction of blank and background signals. Careful cleaning of the hydride generation apparatus, the central tube of the ICP torch and the skimmer was necessary in order to avoid degradation of these detection limits by memory effects. Selenium concentrations as low as 0.6 µg g^–1 in biological tissues and 20 ng l^–1 in sea-water were successfully determined.