The 39th Workshop of International School of Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy on “Tracks on Photonics: Advanced materials, devices and methods” was held from 4th – 9th July 2025 in Erice, Italy. Milica was invited to give an invited lecture on her work on diagnostics of Laser Induced Plasma of complex liquid samples. Title of the talk was: Interrogating complex liquid samples with Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy: fundamental aspects and analytical applications and the abstract of the talk is given below:
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) has become an increasingly valuable technique for rapid, in-situ elemental analysis, offering minimal sample preparation and real-time analysis capabilities. While LIBS is well-established for solid materials, its application to liquids presents unique challenges that require specialized approaches [1]. This lecture will examine the principles and practical implementation of LIBS for liquid analysis, focusing on the physical and analytical difficulties inherent to the liquid phase. The main experimental approach that we adopted is Surface-Enhanced LIBS (SENLIBS), in which liquid-to-solid conversion is obtained by depositing and drying the liquid sample on solid substrates with carefully chosen physical properties, so to maximize the laser-substrate coupling [2]. We will also present preliminary results obtained with two variants of SENLIBS, i.e., Nanoparticle-Enhanced LIBS (NELIBS) [3] and Laser-Induced Periodic Surface Structures (LIPSS)-enhanced LIBS, in which nanostructures are deposited or generated on the substrates prior to the liquid deposition. Finally, we will present two case studies, i.e., detection of heavy metals in oils and elemental analysis of biomedical fluids, to demonstrate the practical applications and performance of LIBS in complex liquid matrices.
References
[1] K. Keerthi, Sajan D. George, Suresh D. Kulkarni, Santhosh Chidangil, V.K. Unnikrishnan, Elemental analysis of liquid samples by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS): Challenges and potential experimental strategies, Optics & Laser Technology, Volume 147, 2022, 107622.
[2] M.A. Aguirre, S. Legnaioli, F. Almodóvar, M. Hidalgo, V. Palleschi, A. Canals, Elemental analysis by surface-enhanced Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy combined with liquid–liquid microextraction, Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy, Volumes 79–80, 2013, Pages 88-93.
[3] Z. Salajková, M. Dell’Aglio, V. Gardette, A. De Giacomo, Nanoparticle-Enhanced Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, in Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). Concepts, Instrumentation, Data Analysis and Applications, ed. V. K. Singh, D. K. Tripathi, Y. Deguchi and
Z. Wang, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (UK), 2023.
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