Determination of Selenium in Fifty Two Geochemical Reference Materials by Hydride Generation Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

Abstract

The selenium content of fifty two geochemical reference samples, issued by several reference material producers (ANRT, GIT‐IWG, USGS, NIST and GSJ) has been determined by continuous hydride generation and atomic absorption spectrometry. Selenium(VI) in the digested solutions was pre‐reduced to selenium(IV) by heating in 6 mol l−1 HCl solution. The limit of detection was 3 ng g−1 selenium in common geological samples. Some samples which contain a large amount of heavy metals were analysed by the standard addition technique. The agreement between the reported results and published data is satisfactory.