Improvement of the sensitivity for the measurement of copper concentrations in soil by microwave-assisted laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

This study shows a 23-fold improvement of the sensitivity in the determination of copper in soil samples when using Microwave-Assisted Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (MA-LIBS) compared with our conventional LIBS. This comparison between MA-LIBS and LIBS was performed with identical ablation conditions and detection geometry. The signal enhancement obtained with MA-LIBS allowed for the detection of spectral lines related to concentration values as low as 30 mg kg(-1) for copper and 23.3 mg kg(-1) for silver. which were not detected by LIBS. Published by Elsevier B.V.