Open AccessDetection of trace-level uranium and samarium in glasses by combined laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and plasma-induced fluorescence spectroscopy
Author(s) -
Lei Liu,
Shuo Li,
Xi Huang,
Yao Lu,
Kevin Chen,
Raphaël Pik,
Lan Jiang,
JeanFrançois Silvain,
Yongfeng Lu
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of analytical atomic spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 113
eISSN - 1364-5544
pISSN - 0267-9477
DOI - 10.1039/c5ja00020c
Subject(s) - laser induced breakdown spectroscopy , spectroscopy , fluorescence spectroscopy , samarium , uranium , plasma , laser induced fluorescence , trace (psycholinguistics) , materials science , fluorescence , analytical chemistry (journal) , inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy , radiochemistry , inductively coupled plasma , chemistry , optics , environmental chemistry , inorganic chemistry , physics , nuclear physics , metallurgy , linguistics , philosophy , quantum mechanics
International audienceDetection of uranium and samarium in zircon glasses by combined laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and plasma-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (PIFS) was studied in this work. A standard LIBS system with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064 nm was used to induce plasmas. LIBS spectra were used to identify the major elements in the target. For trace-level uranium and samarium elements, their atomic or ionic signals could be submerged in the background signals or suffer from spectral interference. Fluorescence spectra induced by plasma emission from the solid targets were then used to indicate the existence of uranium and samarium. This combined analysis provides the advantages of using fluorescence emission from solids without the limitation of laser wavelengths in the UV-Vis range and the capability of detecting uranium and samarium in zircon glasses with high sensitivity. The achieved limits of detection for uranium and samarium elements in this study are 154 and 6 ppm, respectively