Application of Flameless Atomization to the Atomic Absorption Determination of Selenium in Biological Samples

Abstract
Trace amounts of selenium in biological samples were estimated by atomic absorption utilizing a Varian carbon rod flameless atomizer. Samples were digested with nitric perchloric acids, selenium was separated from the interfering sample matrices by reduction-precipitation with ascorbic acid, redissolved in acid and five microliter aliquots were taken for analysis. For a variety of samples, the results were comparable with, but somewhat lower than, levels determined by fluoro-metry. Sensitivity and detection limit are 80 ng/ml and 60 ng/ml respectively; absolute sensitivity and detection limit are 4×10 −10 g and 3×10 −10 g respectively.