Utilization of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy for investigation of the metal accumulation in vegetal tissues

We report on the development and implementation of analytical methodology for investigating elemental accumulation in different layers within plant leaves, with in-situ spatial resolution mapping, exploiting the technique of LIBS. The spectrochemical analysis of lead-doped leaf samples is demonstrated to develop a real time identification procedure in order to complement other analytical techniques not lending themselves for spatial resolution analysis. Our findings suggest that with elevated levels of Pb within the plants transportation and storage of some nutrition elements is changed. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.