Applications of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for geochemical and environmental analysis: A comprehensive review

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been regarded as a future superstar for chemical analysis for years due to its unique features such as little or no sample preparation, remote sensing, and fast and multi-element analysis. Chinese LIBS community is one of the most dynamically developing communities in the World. The aim of the work is to inspect what have been done in China for LIBS development and, based on the understanding of the overall status, to identify the challenges and opportunities for the future development. In this paper, the scientific contributions from Chinese LIBS community are reviewed for the following four aspects: fundamentals, instrumentation, data processing and modeling, and applications; and the driving force of LIBS development in China is analyzed, the critical issues for successful LIBS application are discussed, and in our opinion, the potential direction to improve the technology and to realize large scale commercialization in China is proposed.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in China

A review of the methods of signal enhancement in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is presented. Conventional LIBS suffers from disadvantages of low sensitivity and high limits of detecti...

A review of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy signal enhancement

Plasma-liquid systems have attracted increasing attention in recent years, owing to their high potential in material processing and nanoscience, environmental remediation, sterilization, biomedicine, and food applications. Due to the multidisciplinary character of this scientific field and due to its broad range of established and promising applications, an updated overview is required, addressing the various applications of plasma-liquid systems till now. In the present review, after a brief historical introduction on this important research field, the authors aimed to bring together a wide range of applications of plasma-liquid systems, including nanomaterial processing, water analytical chemistry, water purification, plasma sterilization, plasma medicine, food preservation and agricultural processing, power transformers for high voltage switching, and polymer solution treatment. Although the general understanding of plasma-liquid interactions and their applications has grown significantly in recent decades, it is aimed here to give an updated overview on the possible applications of plasma-liquid systems. This review can be used as a guide for researchers from different fields to gain insight in the history and state-of-the-art of plasma-liquid interactions and to obtain an overview on the acquired knowledge in this field up to now.

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8654497/file/8654498.pdf

Applications of Plasma-Liquid Systems: A Review.

Laser Ablation Molecular Isotopic Spectrometry (LAMIS) is a direct and rapid technique that measures optical emission in laser-induced plasmas for isotopic analysis. LAMIS exploits relatively large isotope shifts in spectra of transient molecular isotopologues formed in laser ablation plasma. LAMIS can be performed without sample preparation at atmospheric pressure in open air or inert buffer gases. A spectrometer with modest spectral resolution can be suitable for both LIBS and LAMIS techniques, and thus elemental and isotopic measurements can be accomplished on the same instrument. To date, detection of several isotopes (H, B, C, N, O, Cl, Sr, and Zr) in laser ablation plumes was demonstrated. Precision of quantitative LAMIS measurements was within 9‰ for the 10B/11B ratio determined with confidence of 95% (2σ-interval). Simultaneous determination of isotopes of different elements was shown to be physically possible, while determination of several isotopes of the same element was successfully demonstrated (Sr, Zr). The studies on double-pulse LAMIS and femtosecond LAMIS indicated further prospects for improving accuracy and sensitivity in this technique. A possibility of semi-quantitative isotopic analysis at distances up to 7.8 m without using calibration standards was demonstrated. The latter technique was named as Femtosecond Filament-induced Laser Ablation Molecular Isotopic Spectrometry (F2-LAMIS). Application of LAMIS in industrial, laboratory, and field operations is possible; and such measurements can be realized at a standoff distance to the sample.

Laser ablation molecular isotopic spectrometry (LAMIS): current state of the art

Laser ablation-spark induced breakdown spectroscopy (LA-SIBS), characterized by a developed high voltage fast pulse discharge spark, allows direct in-site analysis of non-conductive material without prior sample preparation. Currently laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) permits qualitative analysis of a solid or liquid sample by ablating a tiny portion of it, then analyzing the resulting plasma. The LA-SIBS takes this a step further by employing a specifically designed high voltage and fast pulse discharge circuit to enhance plasma emission produced by laser ablation. In this article, LA-SIBS was used for optical emission spectroscopy of soil and compared with a single pulse (SP) LIBS technique. Except for great signal enhancement of plasma emission, the precision in terms of relative standard deviation (RSD) was generally improved by about 2 to 3 times. In addition, the signal to noise (S/N) ratio was improved by about 2 to 3 times as well. These characteristics will thereby probably benefit sensitivity for minor element analysis in most potential analytes. The signal enhancement with improved precision and S/N ratio on soil samples by LA-SIBS was demonstrated.

Laser ablation assisted spark induced breakdown spectroscopy on soil samples

Nanosecond discharge enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of silicon was investigated An intense discharge spark was observed with a peak discharge current of 163 kA and a peak power of 81 MW, and only lasted for ∼51 ns The discharge stability and the effect of the capacitances on the discharge and optical emission were investigated A stable discharge process and optical emission were observed The precision in terms of the relative standard deviation (RSD) of time delay between the laser firing and discharge was 17% with a discharge voltage of 9 kV, while the RSD of line intensities from repeatable measurements was typically about 2–3% The measured line intensities of atomic and ionic states of silicon were used for electron temperature calculation by employing Saha–Boltzmann plots Electron number density was determined by using the Stark broadening of two silicon atomic lines Compared to the laser induced plasma, the temperature of the discharge enhanced plasma was increased, while the electron number density in the discharge plasma was roughly the same in the laser ablation nanosecond discharge enhanced Si plasma

Discharge character and optical emission in a laser ablation nanosecond discharge enhanced silicon plasma

The laser ablation fast pulse discharge plasma spectroscopy (LA-FPDPS) technique has demonstrated its validity to enhance the optical emission of laser-induced plasma. It has the potential to improve the performance of traditional LIBS measurement. Very recently, LA-FPDPS with a nanosecond pulse discharge circuit has been developed, which has a better capability to enhance the optical emission intensity of laser plasma compared with that using a microsecond pulse discharge circuit. In this paper, the effect of the discharge capacitance and discharge voltage on the optical emission of soil plasma generated by LA-FPDPS with a nanosecond pulse discharge circuit is evaluated in detail. In addition, the stability of the time delay between the laser firing and discharge, and between the discharge and optical emission, has been carefully investigated.

Zhijun Ren

Papers

Laser ablation assisted spark induced breakdown spectroscopy on soil samples

Discharge character and optical emission in a laser ablation nanosecond discharge enhanced silicon plasma

Effect of voltage and capacitance in nanosecond pulse discharge enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Optical fiber F–P magnetic field sensor based on magnetostrictive effect of magnetic fluid

Magnetic field fiber sensor based on the magneto-birefringence effect of magnetic fluid