title: Determination of selenium and tellurium in air by atomic-absorption spectrometry.
abstract: Elemental selenium and tellurium, and gaseous inorganic forms of Se(IV), Se(VI), Te(IV) and Te(VI) have been determined after their adsorption on gold-coated beads. After leaching, with water and dilute hydrochloric and nitric acids, the different chemical species in each acid fraction were separated with an anion-exchange resin (Bio-Rad AG-1X8) and a cation-exchange resin (Amberlite IR-120 Plus) by varying the acidity of the leaching agent. Subsequent analysis was by graphite-fumace atomic-absorption spectrometry. The lower detection limit for Se and Te was 0.03 ng/M(3) with a precision of +/- 5%. The average amounts of selenium in interior and exterior air samples were about 4.73 and 1.93 ng/m(3) respectively. For tellurium the corresponding values were about 0.78 and 0.24 ng/m(3).
authors.affiliation: Chemistry Department, University of Missouri, Rolla, MO 65401, U.S.A.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muangnoicharoen
authors.forename: K Y
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Chiou
authors.forename: O K
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Manuel