A compact and low cost laser induced breakdown spectroscopic system: Application for simultaneous determination of chromium and nickel in steel using multivariate calibration

This work describes a compact and low cost analyzer for laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) based on a diode pumped passively Q-switched Nd:LSB microchip laser and a conventional Czerny-Turner spectrograph (spectral range from about 250 to 390 nm) containing a non-intensified, non-gated and non-cooled 1024 pixel linear sensor array. The new LIBS instrument was applied for analyzing steel samples containing chromium and nickel in the concentration range from about 5 to 26% w/w (certified reference materials), integrating the emitted radiation for 40 s under continuous application of laser pulses at 2 kHz for each acquired spectrum (integration of about 80,000 plasmas). The emission data from about 356 to 362 nm and 340 to 354 nm were employed for the construction of two Partial Least Squares (PLS) calibration models for determination of chromium and nickel, respectively. The average relative errors of prediction of chromium and nickel concentrations were 3.7 and 6.7%, respectively, which are similar to or lower than those obtained using higher cost LIBS analyzers. The results have shown that multivariate calibration can help to overcome the decreasing instrumental performance associated with the low cost equipment. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.