Selenite Selenium

ASSIGNED VALUES OF TOTAL SELENIUM, SELENITE AND SELENATE IN RM 602... 

Phytoremediation is also being developed for dealing with soils contaminated with high levels of selenium in California again B.juncea seems to be particularly effective in accumulating the contaminant from soil, and all plants tested were more effective at removing selenate than selenite (92). This is an interesting contrast to bacterial systems, where selenite reduction is more commonly found than selenate reduction. 

Bina Selenides. Most biaary selenides are formed by beating selenium ia the presence of the element, reduction of selenites or selenates with carbon or hydrogen, and double decomposition of heavy-metal salts ia aqueous solution or suspension with a soluble selenide salt, eg, Na2Se or (NH 2S [66455-76-3]. Atmospheric oxygen oxidizes the selenides more rapidly than the corresponding sulfides and more slowly than the teUurides. Selenides of the alkah, alkaline-earth metals, and lanthanum elements are water soluble and readily hydrolyzed. Heavy-metal selenides are iasoluble ia water. Polyselenides form when selenium reacts with alkah metals dissolved ia hquid ammonia. Metal (M) hydrogen selenides of the M HSe type are known. Some heavy-metal selenides show important and useful electric, photoelectric, photo-optical, and semiconductor properties. Ferroselenium and nickel selenide are made by sintering a mixture of selenium and metal powder. 

In 1956 selenium was identified (123) as an essential micronutrient iu nutrition. In conjunction with vitamin E, selenium is effective iu the prevention of muscular dystrophy iu animals. Sodium selenite is adrninistered to prevent exudative diathesis iu chicks, a condition iu which fluid leaks out of the tissues white muscle disease iu sheep and infertility iu ewes (see Eeed ADDITIVES). Selenium lessens the iacidence of pneumonia iu lambs and of premature, weak, and stillborn calves controls hepatosis dietetica iu pigs and decreases muscular inflammation iu horses. White muscle disease, widespread iu sheep and cattle of the selenium-deficient areas of New Zealand and the United States, is insignificant iu high selenium soil areas. The supplementation of animal feeds with selenium was approved by the U.S. EDA iu 1974 (see Eeed additives). Much of selenium s metaboHc activity results from its involvement iu the selenoproteia enzyme, glutathione peroxidase. 

Sodium selenite has also been incorporated into styrene—butadiene mbber and used in a pellet form which results in the slow release of selenium into water. These pellets have been placed in lakes in Sweden which have fish contaminated with mercury owing to high levels of that element in the water. The selenium released by the pellets reacts with mercury to form insoluble, heavy mercury selenide which setties to the lake bottom and removes mercury from the ecosystem (126). 

Discussion. This gravimetric determination depends upon the separation and weighing as elementary selenium or tellurium (or as tellurium dioxide). Alkali selenites and selenious acid are reduced in hydrochloric acid solution with sulphur dioxide, hydroxylammonium chloride, hydrazinium sulphate or hydrazine hydrate. Alkali selenates and selenic acid are not reduced by sulphur dioxide alone, but are readily reduced by a saturated solution of sulphur dioxide in concentrated hydrochloric acid. In working with selenium it must be remembered that appreciable amounts of the element may be lost on warming strong hydrochloric acid solutions of its compounds if dilute acid solutions (concentration <6M) are heated at temperatures below 100 °C the loss is negligible. 

Selenosulfate is an analogue of thiosulfate wherein one of the S atoms is replaced by a Se atom. Thiosulfate and selenosulfate anions are known to have tetrahedral structure as constituting the S and Se analogues, respectively, of the sulfate anion. The isomeric thioselenate anion SSeO " is not produced by the reaction of sulfur with selenite nor is the selenoselenate ion 86203 formed from selenium and selenite. Actually, SSeOj may be produced as a metal salt by boiling an aqueous solution of selenite with sulfur, but in aqueous solution thioselenates are not stable and isomerize to selenosulfates. 

Seby F, Potin-Gautier M, Giffaut E, Borge G, Donard OFX (2001) A critical review of thermodynamic data for selenium species at 25 °C. Chem Geol 171 173-194 Ball S, Milne J (1995) Studies on the interaction of selenite and selenium with sulfur donors. Part 3. Sulfite. Can J Chem 73 716-724... 

Selenium is stable in water and in aqueous solutions over the entire pH interval in the absence of any oxidizing or reducing agent. Selenium can be electrochemically reduced to hydrogen selenide or to selenides that are unstable in water and aqueous solutions. It can be oxidized to selenous acid or selenites and further (electrolyti-cally) to perselenic acid (H2Se20s). Selenic and selenous acids and their salts are stable in water. The selenides, selenites, and selenates of metals other than the alkali metals are generally insoluble. 

DeMoll-Decker H, JM Macy (1993) The periplasmic nitrite reductase of Thauera selenatis may catalyze the reduction of selenite to elementary selenium. Arch Microbiol 160 241-247. 

Sarret G, L Avoscan, M Carriere, R Collins, N Geoffroy, F Carrot, 1 Coves, B Gouget (2005) Chemical forms of selenium in the metal-resistant bacterium Ralstonia metallireducens CH34 exposed to selenite and selenate. AppZ Environ Microbiol 71 231-2337. 

Generally, oxo-selenates can be classified according to the oxidation state of the selenium atom as oxu-selenates(IV), and o.Yo-selenates(VI). The same applies for the respective tellurates. Besides this systematically correct naming, chemists usually use the terms selenites and tellurites instead of o. o-selenates(IV) and oxo-tellurates(IV), and selenates and tellurates instead of OAO-selenates(VI) and oxo-tellurates(VI). Therefore, both nomenclatures will be used in parallel throughout this chapter. Compared to the respective sulfur species, the oxo-selenate(IV) and oxo-tellurates(IV) ions are very stable so that numerous compounds with these anions have been prepared. 

The free selenite ion has a pyramidal shape (C3v symmetry) owing to the lone electron pair at the selenium atom. Thus, the Se032- ion can be treated as a pseudo-tetrahedral anion and the lone electron pair often acts as an invisible ligand within the crystal structures of selenites. This observation is called the stereochemical activity of the lone electron pair and it will turn out as one of the... 

---