Absolute Analysis of Particulate Materials by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Abstract

We have developed a new data acquisition approach followed by a suitable data analysis for Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. It provides absolute concentrations of elements in particulate materials (e.g., industrial dusts and soils). In contrast to the known calibration procedures (based on the ratio of spectral lines), which are applicable only when one component is constant, this approach requires no constant constituent and results in absolute (rather than relative) concentrations. Thus, the major drawback of this analytical method, namely, the signals' instability (especially when particulate materials are concerned) is partially solved. Unlike the commonly used integrated data acquisition, we use a sequence of signals from single breakdown events. We compensate for pulse to pulse fluctuations in an intrinsic way, and the final results do not depend on the presence of any constant component. Extended linear calibration curves are obtained, and limits of detection are improved by 1 order of magnitude relative to previous methods applied to the same samples (e.g., detection limit of 10(-12) g of Zn in aerosol samples). The proposed compensation for pulse variations is based on the assumption that they can be described as a multiplicative effect for both the spectral peaks and a component of the baseline. In other words, we assume that the same fluctuation pattern observed in the spectral peaks is present in the baseline as well. This assumption is shown to hold and is utilized in the proposed method. In addition, a proper data-filtering process, which eliminates ill-conditioned spectra, is shown to partially compensate for problems due to the nature of analysis of particulate materials.

Comparison of the Analytical Performances of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy and Spark-OES

“…Reference sample (sample number S9255, produced by Central Iron and Steel Institute) was analyzed by line scan mode using LIBS and EPMA, the result showed that relative standard deviation (RSD) of chemical content for Si, Mn, Cr, Cu was However, LIBS precision could be improved using a normalization procedure 20) and absolute analyses for particulate material. 21) …”

Performance Evaluation of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometry as a Multimetal Continuous Emission Monitor

“…Recently, a method to correlate the LIBS signal with continuum background to correct the LIBS signal variation, due to the laser shot-to-shot fluctuations and laser-matter interaction, has been receiving a lot of attention. 15,16 We also conducted a series of studies to correlate the LIBS background with changes in excitation conditions. A linear relationship between the LIBS calibration slope and background for Cd and Be was found.…”

Laser breakdown in alcohols and water induced by λ= 1064 nm nanosecond pulses

“…These include biomedical applications, plasma-mediated eye and biological tissues surgery [1,2], selective cell targeting with light-absorbing nanoparticles, chemical engineering and generation of micro/nano-particles. It is also relevant to numerous analytical applications based on laser plasma spectroscopy [3][4][5][6].…”