Electrothermal atomization of palladium stabilized selenium in the presence of phosphate

The interference caused by phosphate (as Na2HPO4) in the electrothermal atomic absorption determination of selenium was investigated for reduced and unreduced palladium nitrate modifiers. An increase of the amount of phosphate in the sample was accompanied with increasing losses of selenium. Kinetic parameters of the selenium atomization were calculated for various amounts of phosphate interference. These results were compared with previous findings for palladium stabilized selenium and the sulfate interference observed for this system. The increasing chemical interference is due to phosphorous replacing the selenium bound by palladium. The phosphorus thus makes the palladium surface unavailable for the stabilization of selenium.