Simultaneous Determination of Selenium and Tellurium in Soil and Sediment by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry with Isopropanol Sensitization
Journal Title: Chinese Journal of Inorganic Analytical Chemistry - Year 2025, Vol 15, Issue 6
Abstract
Selenium and tellurium，being rare and scattered elements in the Earth's crust，coexist with one another. Their accurate determination is of great significance for evaluating geological backgrounds，indicating the distribution of mineral deposits，and assessing environmental pollution. Due to the low content of selenium and tellurium in soil and sediment，as well as the low isotopic dispersion and abundance ratio of selenium and tellurium elements，the sensitivity of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for the determination of selenium and tellurium is low and fails to meet the testing requirements of trace selenium and tellurium in soil and sediment. This article established a method for the simultaneous determination of selenium and tellurium in soil and sediment by means of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with isopropanol sensitization technology. The sample digestion system，sensitization system，and determination conditions were optimized. The results indicated that the HNO3-HF-HCl (5+5+1，V/V) digestion system decomposed the sample，and by using 2% (V/V) isopropanol as a sensitizer，the sensitivities of the 78Se and 128Te isotopes were increased by 2.5 and 2.0 times respectively. The detection limits were 0.003 µg/g and 0.009 µg/g，and the determination range was 0.027-25.0 µg/g and 0.009-5.0 µg/g. In accordance with the experimental method，the national standard materials for soil and sediment (GBW07983，GBW07540，GBW07406，GBW07381，GBW07311) were determined. The measured values of selenium and tellurium were within their recognized values and uncertainty ranges，with a relative error RE≤3.6% and a relative standard deviation (RSD，n=7) ranging from 0.70% to 5.6%. The method enables the simultaneous sensitization of selenium and tellurium，reducing the detection limit by more than 2 times. It is easy to operate and can be widely applied for the determination of selenium and tellurium in soil and sediment.
Authors and Affiliations
Xin WEI, Liming GAN, Xiaojuan FENG, Sha SUN, Yuhao XUE, Tianyu LEI, Xiao WANG
Keywords
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- EP ID EP767901
- DOI 10.20236/j.CJIAC.2025.06.015
- Views 13
- Downloads 0
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