[Determination of selenium in poultry eggs by flow injection-hydride generation-atomic absorption spectrometry]

A flow injection-hydride generation-atomic absorption spectrometric method for the determination of selenium in poultry eggs was developed. Various testing conditions and effect factors for the determination of selenium were studied. The authors also discussed the content of selenium in poultry eggs and the application of scientific feed method in improving selenium content in poultry eggs. The detection limit for selenium was 0.25 microg x L(-1) under optimum conditions. The linear range for selenium was 0.25-60 microg x L(-1). The relative standard deviation was less than 2.5% and the recovery was 95%-108%. This method overcame the problem of severe matrix interferences of graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry, in which matrix modifier must be added to eliminate matrix interference by raising ashing temperature. Additionally this method overcame the shortcoming of slow analysis procedure, complex operation and error caused by manual injection in traditional interval hydride generation-atomic absorption spectrometry. It is a simple, rapid, highly sensitive and automatic method and has been applied to the determination of selenium in poultry eggs with satisfactory results.