Handheld Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Instrumentation Applied to the Rapid Discrimination between Iron Meteorites and Meteor‐Wrongs

Abstract

Meteorites are rocks that once were part of planets or large asteroids, and usually contain a great amount of extra‐terrestrial iron. Nowadays, the meteorite business is booming and the demand is increasing all over the world, whereas supply (originating especially from Morocco and Algeria) is limited. Thus, specimens presented as meteorites often turn out to be common Earth rocks or old smelter and castoff iron dubbed as a ‘meteor‐wrong’. In the present study, a compact handheld instrument based on fast‐response multi‐elemental analysis technique, i.e., laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), has been used to identify specific major elements (Ni and Co) and trace elements (Ga and Ir), in order to discriminate a certified iron meteorite with respect to a suspected meteorite fragment and a pig iron product. Furthermore, a calibration freeLIBS method has been used to quantify the main elements Fe, Ni and Co in the iron meteorite and Fe, Mn, Si and Ti in the other two fragments.

The Plasma Spectroscopic Study of Dergaon Meteorite, India

“…Identical to the previous study, the Dergaon meteorite shows depleted K concentration and Na concentrations much larger than K concentrations. It is an inherently K-depleted H+chondrite [2] rather than the previously suggested impact-induced high-temperature alkali devolatilization process [3], since the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy applied in the present study did not alter the inferred concentrations of alkali elements.The elevated Mg (13.44%wt), Ni (1.30%wt), and Cr (0.55%wt) contents and confirmed presence of Ir (the spectral line at 351.364 nm) analogous to previous studies [2,9,16], and the petrographic observations establish the Dergaon sample as a chondrite meteorite. In addition to the characteristic atomic lines of the elements that were recorded, the spectra also show molecular bands of molecules composed of elements that display relatively higher concentration.…”

“…Furthermore, the wavelengths of spectral lines for characteristic elements found in the Dergaon meteorite included Ni I (338.05, 341.34, 342.37, 349.29 and 352.454 nm), Co I (340.51, 344.364, 347.39and 349.56 nm), and Ir I (351.364 nm). Identical spectral lines of these elements are also observed in meteorites, recently analyzed with LIBS [16]. An earlier study of the Dergaon meteorite reported the presence of noble gases and some light elements as well [2].…”

“…It is a relatively well studied chondritic meteorite [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] possessing some interesting characteristics, such as potassium-depletion associated with vesiculated feldspars and the presence of aliphatic hydrocarbons [8,9] and nano-diamonds [10], observed using conventional analytical techniques including Gamma Ray, FTIR, and Laser Raman. The meteorite was successfully analyzed by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) [11][12][13][14][15][16]. The calibration-free LIBS (CF-LIBS) approach was used to determine the elemental composition of the Dergaon meteorite.…”

Soil Nutrient Detection for Precision Agriculture Using Handheld Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Multivariate Regression Methods (PLSR, Lasso and GPR)

“…With the commercial availability of handheld LIBS instruments utilizing microchip lasers with pulse energies around 6 mJ, and broadband spectrometers covering a spectral range from 190 to 950 nm, geological and environmental applications became possible. In these works, the applicability of the handheld instruments for geochemical fingerprinting [36], calibration curves of Cu and Al alloys [37] and geological discrimination of, e.g., meteors and fakes [38,39] were investigated. Further applications are described in two reviews on portable spectroscopy [40,41].…”

Plasma Spectroscopic Study of Dergaon Meteorite, India

“…It is a relatively well studied chondritic meteorite [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] possessing some interesting characteristics, such as the potassium-depletion associated with vesiculated feldspar, the presence of aliphatic hydrocarbons [8][9] and nano-diamonds [10] observed using conventional analytical techniques (including Gamma Ray, FTIR and Laser Raman, etc.). Meteorites were successfully analyzed by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) [11][12][13][14][15][16]. For the quantitative elemental analysis of the meteorite, calibration-free LIBS (CF-LIBS) approach is used to determine the elemental composition of Dergaon meteorite.…”