Analytical potential of a laser ablation-glow discharge-optical emission spectrometry system for the analysis of conducting and insulating materials

Claudia González de Vega; Cesar Álvarez Llamas; Nerea Bordel; Rosario Pereiro; Alfredo Sanz-Medel

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2015.04.034

Analytical potential of a laser ablation-glow discharge-optical emission spectrometry system for the analysis of conducting and insulating materials

Anal Chim Acta. 2015 Jun 2:877:33-40. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2015.04.034. Epub 2015 Apr 22.

Authors

Claudia González de Vega¹, Cesar Álvarez Llamas², Nerea Bordel³, Rosario Pereiro⁴, Alfredo Sanz-Medel¹

Affiliations

¹ University of Oviedo, Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry, Julián Clavería 8, 33006 Oviedo, Spain.
² University of Oviedo, Department of Physics, Calvo Sotelo s/n, 33007 Oviedo, Spain.
³ University of Oviedo, Department of Physics, Calvo Sotelo s/n, 33007 Oviedo, Spain. Electronic address: bordel@uniovi.es.
⁴ University of Oviedo, Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry, Julián Clavería 8, 33006 Oviedo, Spain. Electronic address: mrpereiro@uniovi.es.

PMID: 26002208
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2015.04.034

Abstract

The analytical capabilities of a glow discharge (GD) as a secondary source for excitation/ionization of the material provided by laser ablation (LA) have been compared to conventional laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). In LA-GD both sources can be independently adjusted to optimize the sampling process and then its subsequent excitation. This could involve a number of analytical performance advantages, such as reduced matrix dependence, greater precision and sensitivity than those encountered in LIBS. For such purpose, an ablation chamber design including two electrodes to generate the GD discharge has been built and assayed. A comparison between LIBS and LA-GD-OES has been carried out, both, under reduced argon and helium atmospheres. Different sets of samples (conducting reference materials, glass and fluorine pellets) have been used to evaluate the novel coupled technique. The LA-GD coupled system has shown to provide lower detection limits. In addition, best linear correlations between intensities and concentrations and lower matrix effects have also been found using the coupled system. Moreover, special advantages of the LA-GD-OES have also been demonstrated for the analysis of fluorine.

Keywords: Fluorine analysis; Glow discharge; Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy; Optical emission spectrometry.