Application of LIBS for direct determination of volatile matter content in coal

Volatile matter content is an important index of coal quality characteristics. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a promising analytical spectroscopy technique. In this paper, a broad set of coal samples with different amounts of volatile matter content were tested by LIBS. Analytical methods with partial correlation and principal component regression were used to extract related LIBS spectral information based on coal structure, which indicates a strong correlation with the content of volatile matter to establish the calibration model. The experimental results derived from the correlation are consistent with those from standard analysis procedures (thermo-gravimetric analysis, TGA). This demonstrates that LIBS is a viable approach to directly determine the volatile content rather than indirect ultimate analysis.