Selenium (Se) is an essential element at trace levels, toxic at higher levels, and exists in several oxidation states in a variety of inorganic and organic compounds. Consequently, the chemistry of selenium is complex in both the environment and biota.
For the determination of selenium species in water, the most practical approach is the use of a separation technique combined with a specific and sensitive detection system. Ion exchange (cation and anion) chromatography is often used for analyte separation with highly sensitive detector, such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and has proven to be an effective hyphenated system. This study demonstrates the ability of the NexSAR™ HPLC-ICP-MS speciation solution to effectively characterize five selenium species in drinking water in under 13 minutes.