Spectrophotometric determination of trace amounts of selenium with catalytic reduction of bromate by hydrazine in hydrochloric acid media

A method is presented for the determination of selenium, based on the catalytic effect of selenium(IV) on the reduction reaction of BrO(-)(3) by N(2)H(4).2HCl. The decolourization of Methyl Orange by the reaction products was used to monitor the reaction spectrophotometrically at 525 nm. This method is precise, highly sensitive, simple, rapid, widely applicable and selective for the determination of selenium(IV) and total selenium. The variables which affected the reaction rate were fully investigated and the optimum conditions were established. Selenium, as low as 1 ng/ml, can be determined by this method. The relative standard deviation of 20 ng of selenium was 0.94% (N = 10). The method was applied to the determination of Se(IV) in a health-care product.