Spectrophotometric Determination of Selenium in Soil and Alloys

Department of Chemistry. University of Mysore, Mysore-570 006 Department of Chemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore-560 024 Manuscript received 27 July 1987, revised 9 February 1988, accepted 22 April 1988 A rapid method for spectrophotometric micro determination of selenium using propericiazine has been reported. A red radical cation is formed at 7-9 M HCI which absorbs maximum at 515 nm and stable for 2 h. Beer's Jaw is obeyed for upto 3.5 \(\mu\)g selenium per ml. The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity are 3.736 K 104 dm3 mol-1 cm-1 and 0.002 \(\mu\)g cm-1, respectively. The optimum reaction conditions and other analytical parameters are evaluated. The proposed method is simple, rapid, selective and can be used for the determination of selenium content in soil and alloys