Double pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy: A potential tool for the analysis of contaminants and macro/micronutrients in organic mineral fertilizers.
Organic fertilizers are obtained from waste of plant or animal origin. One of the advantages of organic fertilizers is that, from the composting, it recycles waste-organic of urban and agriculture origin, whose disposal would cause environmental impacts. Fast and accurate analysis of both major and minor/trace elements contained in organic mineral and inorganic fertilizers of new generation have promoted the application of modern analytical techniques. In particular, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is showing to be a very promising, quick and practical technique to detect and measure contaminants and nutrients in fertilizers. Although, this technique presents some limitations, such as a low sensitivity, if compared to other spectroscopic techniques, the use of double pulse (DP) LIBS is an alternative to the conventional LIBS in single pulse (SP). The macronutrients (Ca, Mg, K, P), micronutrients (Cu, Fe, Na, Mn, Zn) and contaminant (Cr) in fertilizer using LIBS in SP and DP configurations were evaluated. A comparative study for both configurations was performed using optimized key parameters for improving LIBS performance. The limit of detection (LOD) values obtained by DP LIBS increased up to seven times as compared to SP LIBS. In general, the marked improvement obtained when using DP system in the simultaneous LIBS quantitative determination for fertilizers analysis could be ascribed to the larger ablated mass of the sample. The results presented in this study show the promising potential of the DP LIBS technique for a qualitative analysis in fertilizers, without requiring sample preparation with chemical reagents.
Embrapa Instrumentation, P.O. Box 741, 13560-970 São Carlos, SP, Brazil. Electronic address: gunicolodelli@hotmail.com.
Gustavo
G
Nicolodelli
CNR, Istituto di Nanotecnologia (NANOTEC) - PLASMI Lab, Bari, 70126, Bari, Italy.
Giorgio Saverio
GS
Senesi
Embrapa Instrumentation, P.O. Box 741, 13560-970 São Carlos, SP, Brazil.
Ivan Luiz
IL
de Oliveira Perazzoli
Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, P.O. Box 549, 79070-900 Campo Grande, MS, Brazil.
Bruno Spolon
BS
Marangoni
Embrapa Solos, Rua Jardim Botânico 1024, 22460-000 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
Vinícius
V
De Melo Benites
Embrapa Instrumentation, P.O. Box 741, 13560-970 São Carlos, SP, Brazil.
Débora Marcondes Bastos Pereira
DMBP
Milori
D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D005308:Fertilizers / Q000032:analysis*; D007834:Lasers; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008903:Minerals / Q000032:analysis*; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000032:analysis*
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D005308:Fertilizers; D008903:Minerals; D014131:Trace Elements
DP LIBS; Limit of detection; Organic fertilizers; Waste-organic