LIBS Applications to Liquids and Solids in Liquids

Since its inception, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has become an analytical technique of huge potential for characterization of materials in all three states of matter. In underwater LIBS, the plasma formation, expansion, and emission all take place inside the liquid medium. This chapter discusses LIBS instrumentation and data collection system used for the analysis of liquids and solids in liquids. It presents LIBS measurements of bulk liquid samples and solids submerged in aqueous media, measurements made by focusing laser pulses on liquid surfaces, and measurements of liquids after various sample treatments. In addition, the chapter reports the working mechanism of NETL-developed field-deployable LIBS sensor and its preliminary performance in field measurements. Similar to solids and gases, the LIBS instrumentation for liquid measurements consists of an excitation source, focusing optics, a detection system, and a workstation. LIBS can perform both qualitative and quantitative analyses.