Battery powered laser-induced plasma spectrometer for elemental determinations

Abstract

A battery powered, portable laser-induced breakdown spectrometry instrument with a low pulse energy laser and a low resolution, non-gated spectrometer is evaluated. Improvements in the instrument probe design were accomplished through studies of the plasma spatial development, lens-to-sample distance effects and spatial filtering. The prototype was evaluated on paint, steel, ores, and organic samples. Limits of detection ranged from 0.016% for Mn in NIST SRM steel to 0.13% for Ca in NIST SRM organic samples. Acceptable precision (0.4–4.9%) was obtained for steel, ore and organic SRM samples. The poorer precision (4.0–44.1%) obtained for the detection of Pb in paint can be attributed to the heterogeneity of the samples.