IN-SITU; LIBS; STEELS; CLASSIFICATION; EXPLORATION; ELEMENTS; SPECTRA; SAMPLES; SOIL; MN

Stand-off laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (ST-LIBS) has attracted increasing attention as a valuable method for the remote analysis of materials. In this work, a multi-collector (MC) system combining low cost small lenses imitating the structure and shape of an artificial optical compound eye (AOCE) is presented to enhance the spectral intensity of ST-LIBS. The volume of the MC system is one eighteenth smaller than that of a telescope system and the number of collectors can be flexibly changed according to the requirements. The mechanisms of spectral enhancement are also discussed. In order to illustrate the performance of the MC system, the spectral intensities and the limits of detection (LoDs) of Mn and Cr elements acquired by the telescope system and the MC system were compared at a distance of 2 meters. The results showed that the spectral intensity acquired from the MC system was enhanced by 2.2 times, and the LoDs of Mn and Cr were decreased to 294 mu g g(-1) and 49 mu g g(-1). These results indicate that the MC system has great potential in providing a portable, flexible and effective collection method for remote detection.

VACUUM-ULTRAVIOLET; INDUCED PLASMA; SPECTROMETRY; OPTIMIZATION; COAL; IMPROVEMENTS; ABSORPTION

Carbon is a key element for steel properties but (a) hard to be determined by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Utilizing the combination of carbon in analytes and nitrogen in ambient gas to generate carbon nitrogen (CN) radicals, LIBS assisted with laser-induced radical fluorescence (LIBS-LIRF) was proposed to resonantly excite radicals instead of atoms in plasmas. The CN radicals in the B-2 Sigma-A(2)II band were stimulated by a 421.60 nm laserwavelength and emitted 388.34 nm fluorescence. The results show that the spectral intensity of the CN radicals was enhanced by 2 orders of magnitude using LIBS-LIRF. Then carbon content in steels was accurately and sensitively determined without spectral interference. The limits of detection (LoDs) were 0.039 and 0.013 wt % in air and nitrogen gas, respectively. The limits of quantification (LoQs) were 0.130 and 0.043 wt % in air and nitrogen gas, respectively. This work demonstrated the feasibility of LIES to realize reliable carbon determination in steel industry.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy; Characteristic spectral lines of non-metallic elements; Support vector machine; Plastics identification;ARTIFICIAL NEURAL-NETWORKS; INDUCED PLASMA; EMISSION; POLYMERS

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIPS) combined with support vector machine (SVM) was adopted to identify 20 kinds of different colored industrial plastics from different manufacturers in open air. The experimental parameters of spectral acquisition were optimized firstly. 100 spectra recorded under optimum conditions were randomly and equally divided into training set and test set. 6 non-metallic characteristic spectral lines were used to avoid the interference with metallic lines. And the training time of SVM model was reduced. The results show that 996 of 1000 test spectra were identified correctly and the average classification accuracy is reached to 99.6%. The classification efficiency is improved with 6 non-metallic characteristic spectral lines. The research demonstrates that, when fewer of major non-metallic characteristic spectral lines are used, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technique with support vector machine can identify more kinds of plastics with high accuracy and efficiency.

QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS; INSTRUMENT; ABSORPTION; PLASMA; COBALT; LEAD; SOIL; AIR

Spatially selective excitation was proposed to improve excitation efficiency in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy combined with laser-inducedfluorescence (LIBS-LIF). Taking chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni) elements in steels as examples, it was discovered that the optimal excitation locations were the center of the plasmas for the matrix of the iron (Fe) element but the periphery for Cr and Ni elements. By focusing an excitation laser at the optimal locations, not only excitation efficiency but also the analytical accuracy and sensitivity of quantitative LIBS-LIF were better than those with excitation at the plasma center in conventional LIBS-LIF. This study provides an effective way to improve LIBS-LIF analytical performance. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America

IMPROVEMENT; CHEMOMETRICS; SPECTROMETRY; CONFINEMENT; CALIBRATION; SELECTION; PLASMA; LIBS; SOIL

In this work, a genetic algorithm (GA) was employed to select the intensity ratios of the spectral lines belonging to the target and domain matrix elements, then these selected line-intensity ratios were taken as inputs to construct an analysis model based on an artificial neural network (ANN) to analyze the elements copper (Cu) and vanadium (V) in steel samples. The results revealed that the root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEPs) for the elements Cu and V can reach 0.0040 wt. % and 0.0039 wt. %, respectively. Compared to 0.0190 wt. % and 0.0201 wt. % of the conventional internal calibration approach, the reduction rates of the RMSEP values reached 78.9% and 80.6%, respectively. These results indicate that the GA combining ANN can excellently execute the quantitative analysis in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for steel samples and further improve analytical accuracy. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy; Rare earth elements; Aqueous solution; Surface-enhanced;RARE-EARTH-ELEMENTS; QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS; ACCURACY IMPROVEMENT; EMISSION; SAMPLES; LIBS; EXTRACTION; LIQUIDS; WATER

Determination of rare earth elements (REEs) plays an important role in the extraction process. In this work, surface-enhanced laser-induced breakdownspectroscopy (SENLIBS) was introduced to detect REEs (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, and neodymium elements) in an aqueous solution. The emission lines of La II 394.91 nm, Ce II 418.66 nm, Pr II 422.29 nm, and Nd II 406.10 nm were selected for quantitative analysis by drying the analytical samples on a Zn metal substrate surface and optimizing the experimental parameters. The results showed that the limits of detection (LoDs) for determining La, Ce, Pr, and Nd elements can reach to 0.85, 4.07, 2.97, and 10.98 mu g mL(-1), respectively, which proved that SENLIBS is a feasible method for determining REEs.