Determination of heavy metals in soils by Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a recent analytical technique that is based upon the measurement of emission lines generated by atomic species close to the surface of the sample, thus allowing their chemical identification. In this work, the LIBS technique has been applied to the determination of total contents of heavy metals in a number of reference soil samples. In order to validate the technique, LIBS data were compared with data obtained on the same soil samples by application of conventional Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) spectroscopy. The partial agreement obtained between the two sets of data suggested the potential applicability of the LIBS technique to the measurement of heavy metals in soils.