Formation of volatile selenium species in synthetic seawater under light and dark experimental conditions
✍ Scribed by David Amouroux; Christophe Pécheyran; Olivier F. X. Donard
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 116 KB
- Volume
- 14
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0268-2605
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✦ Synopsis
Experiments were performed in the laboratory on synthetic seawater spiked with different selenium species at trace levels to study the formation of volatile selenium compounds under dark or controlled simulated sunlight conditions. Spiking the reaction media with inorganic and organic selenium compounds demonstrated that several volatile selenium species could be formed under these simulated conditions. Selenoamino acids react to produce significant amounts of volatile selenium species in both light and dark conditions. Products formed include dimethyl selenide (DMSe), dimethyl selenyl sulphide (DMSeS) and dimethyl diselenide (DMDSe). Inorganic selenium oxyanions added to the synthetic reaction media did not form volatile species via abiotic reactions despite the presence of strong methylating agents. These results suggest that the formation of stable volatile species from bio-organic selenium compounds can occur via abiotic reactions in the marine photic zone.