Spectrophotometric determination of selenium by use of thionin.

A simple, rapid, and sensitive spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of selenium in real samples of water, soil, plant materials, human hair, and synthetic cosmetic and in pharmaceutical preparations. The method is based on the reaction of selenium with potassium iodide in an acidic medium to liberate iodine. The liberated iodine bleaches the violet color of thionin, and which is measured at 600 nm. This decrease in absorbance is directly proportional to selenium concentration and obeys Beer's law in the range 1-5 micro g selenium in a final volume of 10 mL (0.1-0.5 microg mL(-1)). The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity of the method were found to be 7.33 x 10(4) L mol(-1) cm(-1) and 0.0011 microg cm(-2), respectively. The optimum reaction conditions and other analytical conditions were evaluated. The effect of interfering ions on the determination is described.