Abstract

A fully alkaline procedure, including alkaline fusion, pre-reduction of Se(VI) to Se(IV) in alkaline medium and an alkaline mode of H₂Se generation, together with ICP-AES for the determination of total Se in biological and environmental samples, is described. Alkaline fusion coupled with alkaline mode hydride generation could effectively avoid volatile losses of selenium by changing it into soluble salts such as selenate or selenite and greatly eliminate the chemical interference from the co-existing transition metals Fe, Cu, and Mn. The method was verified with a certified reference material and was successfully applied to several real samples such as selenium-enriched plasma, egg, animal feeds and soils with satisfactory results.