Quantitative determination of uranium, strontium, thorium, rubidium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese in dry aerosols by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a technique for rapid and remote analysis in which a high power laser pulse is focused on a sample to induce plasma breakdown which causes intense optical emission. This Thesis contains two parts: (1) quantitative determination of uranium, rubidium, strontium, thorium, nickel, cobalt and manganese by LIBS. Limits of detection (LOD), accuracy, and precison for the measurement of these elements were found. The effect of atmosphere on plasma emission was investigated in air and helium, and compared with air-based plasma. Air-based plasma was found preferable to He. (2) The plasma has been characterized in terms of its temperature and electron density. Using different methods, relative concentration ratios of Co/Fe and Mn/Fe were determined. Ionization degree correction was applied for cobalt and mangenese and improvement was found for cobalt but not for manganese because the ionization degree of Mn and Fe are very similar.