Rapid Analysis of Soil Samples by Laser Ionization Mass Spectrometry

In this work, laser ionization mass spectrometry (LIMS) was developed in the laboratory and used to analyze geochemical standard reference soil samples to demonstrate the rapid analytical capability of this technique.With the help of high laser irradiance and low-pressure buffer gas, sufficient atomization and quite uniform ionization can be achieved.Little spectral interference appeared in the spectra produced by LIMS, while the signal intensity is fairly proportional to the element concentration.These features enable LIMS to acquire semi-quantitative analysis without reference materials.To further improve the quantitative accuracy, correction factors can be obtained using reference materials, while these correction factors can virtually be applied for elemental quantitation of all soil samples.The results show that LIMS is a reliable technology for the rapid analysis of metallic and non-metallic elements in soil samples.