An optical sensor for selenite determination in aqueous samples

Abstract

Abstract Background In the present work, an optical sensor has been developed for the determination of selenium (IV) in aqueous samples. The optical sensor is a cellulose triacetate plasticized membrane with tri-octyl methyl ammonium chloride (Al-336) immobilized in it as an ion exchanger. Methods The sensor works in two steps. In the first step, a 1 × 2 cm piece of the membrane is allowed to equilibrate with a known amount of selenium (IV) solution and potassium iodide in acidic medium. During this equilibration, the iodometric reaction takes place and, I 3 − (tri-iodide anion) is formed which gets sorbed into the membrane due to which the colorless film changes to yellow color showing an absorption maxima at 355 nm which is a characteristic of I 3 −. In the second step the I 3 − loaded membrane is allowed to equilibrate with a solution of variamine blue dye in presence of sodium acetate. In this step, oxidation of the dye takes place and the membrane shows a color change from yellow to violet and a shift in the absorption maxima from 355 to 550 nm. Results The method is used to study the quantitative determination of selenium in aqueous samples, where the amount of selenium is varied and the corresponding absorbance at 550 nm is measured. A good linear curve is obtained in the concentration range of 0.2 to 3 μg mL−1 of selenium. Conclusions The proposed method can be successfully applied to determination of selenium (IV) in various pharmaceutical and environmental samples.

Keywords

• Selenium
• Iodometry
• Variamine blue
• Tri-iodide
• Sensor