LIBS assisted PCA analysis of multiple rare-earth elements (La, Ce, Nd, Sm, and Yb) in phosphorite deposits

Amir Fayyaz; Haroon Asghar; A M Alshehri; Tahani A Alrebdi

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13957

LIBS assisted PCA analysis of multiple rare-earth elements (La, Ce, Nd, Sm, and Yb) in phosphorite deposits

Heliyon. 2023 Feb 23;9(3):e13957. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13957. eCollection 2023 Mar.

Authors

Amir Fayyaz¹, Haroon Asghar¹, A M Alshehri², Tahani A Alrebdi³

Affiliations

¹ National Centre for Physics, Quaid-i-Azam University Campus, 45320 Islamabad, Pakistan.
² Department of Physics, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Physics, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

In the present study, the immediate detection of rare-earth elements (REEs) in phosphorite deposits has been reported using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Numerous emission lines corresponding to the REEs such as lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), neodymium (Nd), samarium (Sm), and ytterbium (Yb), have been detected in the emission spectra of phosphorite-induced plasma plume. For the quantitative analysis, we employed the calibration-free LIBS (CF-LIBS), and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy techniques. The results obtained using the CF-LIBS technique show excellent agreement with that obtained by EDX. Besides principal component analysis (PCA) was employed by incorporating the LIBS spectral data of rare earth phosphorite rocks samples containing La, Ce, Nd, Sm, and Yb emission lines. The first three PCs were observed using LIBS spectral data set showing a covariance (interpretation rate) up to 76.3%. This study suggests that LIBS yields a quick and very reliable qualitative and quantitative analysis of REEs in any geological ore sample.

Keywords: And EDX; CF- LIBS; PCA; Phosphorite deposits; REEs.