Stoichiometric Analysis of Inorganic Compounds Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy with Gated and Nongated Spectrometers

Abstract EN

We describe our results obtained from stoichiometric ratio studies of three different energetic, inorganic samples (ammonium perchlorate (AP), boron potassium nitrate (BPN), and ammonium nitrate (AN)) using the technique of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) with nanosecond pulses.

Signal collection was independently executed using both gated and nongated spectrometers.

The oxygen peak at 777.31 nm (O) and nitrogen peaks at 742.50 nm (N1), 744.34 nm (N2), and 746.91 nm (N3) were used for evaluating the O/N ratios.

Temporal analysis of plasma parameters and ratios was carried out for the gated data.

O/N1, O/N2, and O/N3 ratios retrieved from the gated AP data were in excellent agreement with the actual stoichiometry.

In the case of gated BPN data, O/N2 and O/N3 ratios were in good agreement.

The stoichiometry results obtained with nongated spectrometer, although less accurate than that obtained with gated spectrometer, suggest that it can be used in applications where fair accuracy is sufficient.

Our results strongly indicate that non-gated LIBS technique is worthwhile in the kind of applications where precision classification is not required.