Quantitative Compositional Analyses of Calcareous Rocks for Lime Industry Using LIBS

Abstract

Here, the potential of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in grading calcareous rocks for the lime industry was investigated. In particular, we developed a system equipped with non-intensified detectors operating in scanning mode, defined a suitable data acquisition protocol, and implemented quantitative data processing using both partial least squares regression (PLS-R) and a multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network. Tests were carried out on 32 samples collected in various limestone quarries, which were preliminarily analyzed using traditional laboratory X-ray fluorescence (XRF); then, they were divided into two groups for calibration and validation. Particular attention was dedicated to the development of LIBS methodology providing a reliable basis for precise material grading. The congruence of the results achieved demonstrates the capability of the present approach to precisely quantify major and minor geochemical components of calcareous rocks, thus disclosing a concrete application perspective within the lime industry production chain.

Exploring the Potential of Portable Spectroscopic Techniques for the Biochemical Characterization of Roots in Shallow Landslides

“…LIBS measurements were performed by using homemade instrumentation, reported previously [74,75]. It consists of a small fiber-coupled endpiece, which includes beam delivery optics, and an instrumental module enclosing the laser excitation source (SSD QS Nd:YAG @1064 nm (Quantel USA, Bozeman, MT, USA) and a set of four compact spectrometers (Avantes B.V., Apeldoorn, The Netherlands) equipped with CCD detector arrays.…”

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Imaging for Material and Biomedical Applications: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

“…This improvement can be useful in the lime industry, in which keeping an eye on chlorine (Cl) and F concentrations is necessary. Agresti et al already used LIBS imaging with a hand-held (HH) LIBS system for quality control in calcareous rock for the lime industry . Elemental mapping was used as a support for controlling the homogeneity of the rocks, and accumulated single-shots were used on a PLS- and ANN-based model for compositional prediction.…”

A novel strategy for quantitative analysis of the energy value of milk powdervialaser-induced breakdown spectroscopy coupled with machine learning and a genetic algorithm

“…Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a rapidly developing chemical element analysis technology that has been widely used in the detection of alloys, [5][6][7] plant materials, [8][9][10] food and nutrition, [11][12][13] rocks, [14][15][16] and soils. [17][18][19] As a fast, online, pollution-free, and low-cost technology, it is well suited for the approximate analysis of milk powder.…”