Catalytic Spectrophotometric Determination of Nanogram Amounts of Selenium(IV)

A method is proposed for the catalytic spectrophotometric determination of nanogram amounts of selenium(IV). The method is based on the reduction of nitrate with iron(II) ethylenediaminetetraacetate catalyzed by Se(IV) compounds. The reaction proceeds in several stages and yields iron(III) ethylenediaminetetraacetate, the nitrosyl complex of iron, nitrous acid, and other products. Nitrous acid enters into the diazotization reaction with aromatic amine. The resulting diazo compound is coupled with another aromatic amine to form the azo compound. 4-Nitroaniline is used as the diazo component, and N-diethyl-N-(1-naphthyl)ethylenediamine is used as the azo component. The molar absorptivity of the solution of the azo compound is 4.5 × 10⁴ at 540 nm. A kinetic method was developed for the determination of selenium(IV) in potable and natural waters with the use of the standard addition method. The detection limit of selenium by the proposed method is 0.1 ng/mL. In the determination of 0.2 and 2 ng/mL selenium, the relative standard deviation is 6 and 2%, respectively. The interfering effect of organic compounds dissolved in natural water is eliminated by the ultrasonic treatment of water samples.