Question

1. A fish captured from a mining-contaminated lake was dissected and its muscle and liver samples were taken, freeze dried, and ground to powder. The water content in the muscle and liver sample is 84.0% and 71.0% respectively. 0.2500g of a dried sample powder was digested with a strong oxidant reagent and acid under a high temperature. The digest (aqueous solution of a completely digested sample) was transferred into a 25.00mL volumetric flask. The digest was diluted 10 and 25 times for muscle and liver respectively. The concentration of Se measured in the diluted sample solution was 10.5µg/L and 8.3µg/L for the muscle and liver sample. Calculate how much Se is in the muscle and liver samples, express them in both mg/kg dry and wet sample weight. If the concentration of Se in lake water is 0.7µg/L, how much Se is accumulated in muscle and liver? Comment on these results.

Answer 1