Production of Aqueous Colloidal Se Solution by Mechanical Dispersion

Owing to its antioxidant properties, selenium is an essential trace element for human life which enters the body mainly from foods of plant origin. To obtain selenium nanoparticles for the preparation of functional foods enriched in selenium, in this work, the method of mechanical dispersion was used. Colloidal solutions of selenium nanoparticles ranging in size from 20 to 100 nm were obtained by mechanical dispersion of selenium granules in distilled water using a vibrating machine of the Metapolan-2 type at a frequency of 100 Hz. The Se concentration in the solution was measured by means of atomic emission spectroscopy and reached from 2 to 10 mg/L. It has been established that the properties of colloidal selenium solutions prepared by mechanical dispersion largely depend on the material of the weighing bottle in which they are obtained. Selenium colloidal solutions obtained in plastic bottles have acidic properties, while solutions obtained in glass bottles are alkaline. Using the method of electron microscopy, it is shown that the evaporation of colloidal solutions leads to the formation of fractal structures.