Quantitative analysis of toxic metals lead and cadmium in water jet by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been applied to the analysis of toxic metals Pb and Cd in Pb(NO3)2 and Cd(NO3)2.4H2O aqueous solutions, respectively. The plasma is generated by focusing a nanosecond Nd:YAG (λ=1064 nm) laser on the surface of liquid in the homemade liquid jet configuration. With an assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE), calibration curves of Pb and Cd were obtained at different delay times between 1 to 5 μs. The temporal behavior of limit of detections (LOD) was investigated and it is shown that the minimum LODs for Pb and Cd are 4 and 68 parts in 10(6) (ppm), respectively. In order to demonstrate the correctness of the LTE assumption, plasma parameters including plasma temperature and electron density are evaluated, and it is shown that the LTE condition is satisfied at all delay times.