Screening of brick-kiln area soil for determination of heavy metal Pb using LIBS

Abstract

Rapid measurement of heavy metals in soil is an important factor in modeling the effect of industrial pollution on agricultural soil. Conventional methods of heavy metal analysis are relatively slow in terms of measurement/analysis time and sample preparation time with the requirement of skilled manpower. Our results highlight the quantitative analysis of toxic metal lead (Pb), for the first time, in an Indian agricultural soil, in the vicinity of brick-kiln area, Phaphamau, near Allahabad, India, by using a novel technique named as Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). LIBS spectra of soil has been recorded in the wavelength range from ultraviolet (UV) to infrared region (200-1,100 nm). The suitability of Pb lines for drawing the calibration curve is checked and realized, for the first time, that 220.3 nm, which is observed in the UV region of LIBS spectra, is completely interference free and best suited for the quantification of trace amount of Pb in soil instead of any other Pb lines, because it has best linear regression coefficient and smallest standard deviation of the background signal. In the present work the detection limit for Pb in soil is found to be 45 ppm. Based on the present work the concentration of Pb in agricultural soil of brick-kiln area in Phaphamau is found to be congruent with 570 ppm, which is more than the regulatory standards imposed by US Environmental Protection Agency (400 ppm) for the presence of lead in soil, therefore, it is of great concern to us.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry for determination of Cr in soils from Brits District, South Africa

“…The LOD was calculated by (3σ)/m, where σ is the standard deviation of the background signal and m is the slope of the calibration curve [27,44]. The LOD calculation was based on International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) method [36].…”

“…In principle, LIBS is able to perform elemental analysis of any kind of sample, irrespective of its physical state [23,27]. One of the principal advantages of LIBS is that the time required for analysis is very short (seconds); moreover, when required, a fast mapping of the sample surface can be performed in a short time [28,29].…”

“…The application of LIBS to soil [6,[24][25][26][27][33][34][35][36] and sediment [22,37,38] analyses has been of growing interest during the last decade. The LIBS technique has been mainly applied to solve two related problems of soil analysis.…”

Automatic determination of optimal spectral peaks for classification of Chinese tea leaves using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

“…In recent years, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been widely used in environmental, industrial, and agricultural product detection, because it is rapid and accurate; in addition, this method is capable of micro-damage detecting and multiple elements simultaneously [9][10][11][12] . The LIBS technique produces several thousands to tens of thousands of variable (spectral) information, which is the basis for the quantitative/qualitative analysis of samples.…”

Recent technological progress in Asia from the first Asian Symposium on Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

“…For applications in soil analysis, sample preparation proved useful for soil classification [78]. Novel methods [79][80][81][82], such as standard addition methods combined with wavelet transforms, and laser ablation assisted with spark have been used to improve the accuracy of soil analysis, and the application studies show that LIBS seems to be a potential technique [83][84][85]. In liquid analyses, the Ocean University of China first realized LIBS for underwater detection [86,87].…”