The first part of this two-part review focused on the fundamental and diagnostics aspects of laser-induced plasmas, only touching briefly upon concepts such as sensitivity and detection limits and largely omitting any discussion of the vast panorama of the practical applications of the technique. Clearly a true LIBS community has emerged, which promises to quicken the pace of LIBS developments, applications, and implementations. With this second part, a more applied flavor is taken, and its intended goal is summarizing the current state-of-the-art of analytical LIBS, providing a contemporary snapshot of LIBS applications, and highlighting new directions in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, such as novel approaches, instrumental developments, and advanced use of chemometric tools. More specifically, we discuss instrumental and analytical approaches (e.g., double- and multi-pulse LIBS to improve the sensitivity), calibration-free approaches, hyphenated approaches in which techniques such as Raman and fluorescence are coupled with LIBS to increase sensitivity and information power, resonantly enhanced LIBS approaches, signal processing and optimization (e.g., signal-to-noise analysis), and finally applications. An attempt is made to provide an updated view of the role played by LIBS in the various fields, with emphasis on applications considered to be unique. We finally try to assess where LIBS is going as an analytical field, where in our opinion it should go, and what should still be done for consolidating the technique as a mature method of chemical analysis.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1366/11-06574

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), part II: review of instrumental and methodological approaches to material analysis and applications to different fields.

A new procedure, based on the laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS) technique, is proposed for calibration-free quantitative elemental analysis of materials. The method here presented, based on an algorithm developed and patented by IFAM-CNR, allows the matrix effects to be overcome, yielding precise and accurate quantitative results on elemental composition of materials without use of calibration curves. Some applications of the method are illustrated, for quantitative analysis of the composition of metallic alloys and quantitative determination of the composition of the atmosphere.

New Procedure for Quantitative Elemental Analysis by Laser-Induced Plasma Spectroscopy

Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium in Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy: Beyond the McWhirter criterion

Characterization of laser induced plasmas by optical emission spectroscopy: A review of experiments and methods

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is reviewed by dividing the literature into three categories according to target phase: solid, liquid, or gas. Within each category, the literature is ...

Fundamentals and Applications of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

In this paper, results are presented showing the feasibility of the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique as a fast and sensitive analytic tool for quantitative measurement of trace elements in water. Many ionic elements were detected; the system linearity was tested by analyzing water samples containing known concentration of Mg and Ca, whereas Cr-polluted samples were exploited to test the system sensitivity limit to impurities.

Trace Element Analysis in Water by the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Technique

The results of a joint experiment of IFAM-Pisa and ENEA-Frascati for the detection of traces of pollutants in soil by a time-resolved laser-induced spectroscopy technique are reported. Using samples of soil with known pollutants' concentration [Geochemical Exploration Reference (GXR) silicate from US Geological Survey], we were able to estimate the sensitivity of this Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique to be of the order of some parts per million for a vast class of metallic pollutants, including extremely dangerous soil pollutants such as copper, lead and chromium.

Trace pollutants analysis in soil by a time-resolved laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technique

For several years the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique has been applied successfully to the problem of detecting small traces of pollutants in gases. The possible application of this method for the individuation of mercury in air is discussed. The laboratory prototype of the detection system is described in detail, and the sensitivity of the system for the diagnostics of small traces of mercury is determined. The reduced dimensions of the experimental apparatus and its relatively low cost make the LIBS method competitive with other laser-based methods for in situ analysis.

Detection of mercury in air by time-resolved laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technique

The usual technique of the laser induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS) spectra analysis relies on the use of calibration curves for quantitative measurements of plasma composition. However, LIPS calibration curves strongly depend on the material composition (the so-called matrix effect); thus, this standard approach to the LIPS spectra analysis is inadequate when precise information on unknown samples composition is required. In this paper we present a new procedure, based on LIPS, for calibration-free quantitative elemental analysis of materials. The new procedure, based on an algorithm developed and patented by IFAM-CNR, allows the overcoming of the matrix effect, yielding precise and accurate quantitative results without the need of calibration curves.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0263034699174251

S. Rastelli

Papers

New Procedure for Quantitative Elemental Analysis by Laser-Induced Plasma Spectroscopy

Trace Element Analysis in Water by the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Technique

Trace pollutants analysis in soil by a time-resolved laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technique

Detection of mercury in air by time-resolved laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technique

CF-LIPS: A new approach to LIPS spectra analysis