scholarly journals Field Deployable Method for Gold Detection Using Gold Pre-Concentration on Functionalized Surfaces

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 492
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Zuber ◽  
Akash Bachhuka ◽  
Steven Tassios ◽  
Caroline Tiddy ◽  
Krasimir Vasilev ◽  
...  

Gold in a rock is usually associated with other elements, forms nuggets, or is hosted within the crystal lattice of a mineral (e.g., pyrite) and is often heterogeneously distributed and trapped inside the rock matrix even after crushing. Gold can be liberated from these rock matrices by chemical leaching, but then their concentration becomes too low for detection by a portable method due to the dilution effect of the leaching process. In this paper, we present a proof-of-concept method for gold pre-concentration to enable the detection of gold in rock at low levels using a portable technique. Two coating methods, plasma polymerization (PP) and wet chemistry (WC), were utilized to generate surface coatings, which were then compared for their effectiveness in binding gold ions. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was used as a portable technique for the detection of immobilized gold on these modified surfaces. The detection limit for pure gold ions in solution incubated on PP and WC coatings was determined to be as low as 80 ppb. To demonstrate the real-life capability of the method, it was tested for rock sample leachates bearing 300–500 ppb gold.

Author(s):  
Zuzana Gajarska ◽  
Lukas Brunnbauer ◽  
Hans Lohninger ◽  
Andreas Limbeck

AbstractOver the past few years, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has earned a lot of attention in the field of online polymer identification. Unlike the well-established near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), LIBS analysis is not limited by the sample thickness or color and therefore seems to be a promising candidate for this task. Nevertheless, the similar elemental composition of most polymers results in high similarity of their LIBS spectra, which makes their discrimination challenging. To address this problem, we developed a novel chemometric strategy based on a systematic optimization of two factors influencing the discrimination ability: the set of experimental conditions (laser energy, gate delay, and atmosphere) employed for the LIBS analysis and the set of spectral variables used as a basis for the polymer discrimination. In the process, a novel concept of spectral descriptors was used to extract chemically relevant information from the polymer spectra, cluster purity based on the k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) was established as a suitable tool for monitoring the extent of cluster overlaps and an in-house designed random forest (RDF) experiment combined with a cluster purity–governed forward selection algorithm was employed to identify spectral variables with the greatest relevance for polymer identification. Using this approach, it was possible to discriminate among 20 virgin polymer types, which is the highest number reported in the literature so far. Additionally, using the optimized experimental conditions and data evaluation, robust discrimination performance could be achieved even with polymer samples containing carbon black or other common additives, which hints at an applicability of the developed approach to real-life samples. Graphical abstract


2020 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 20701
Author(s):  
Bo Li ◽  
Xiaofeng Li ◽  
Zhifeng Zhu ◽  
Qiang Gao

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a powerful technique for quantitative diagnostics of gases. The spatial resolution of LIBS, however, is limited by the volume of plasma. Here femtosecond-nanosecond dual-pulsed LIBS was demonstrated. Using this method, the breakdown threshold was reduced by 80%, and decay of continuous radiation was shortened. In addition, the volume of the plasma was shrunk by 85% and hence, the spatial resolution of LIBS was significantly improved.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-8
Author(s):  
Komang Gde Suastika, Heri Suyanto, Gunarjo, Sadiana, Darmaji

Abstract - Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is one method of atomic emission spectroscopy using laser ablation as an energy source. This method is used to characterize the type of amethysts that originally come from Sukamara, Central Kalimantan. The result of amethyst characterization can be used as a reference for claiming the natural wealth of the amethyst. The amethyst samples are directly taken from the amethyst mining field in the District Gem Amethyst and consist of four color variations: white, black, yellow, and purple. These samples were analyzed by LIBS, using laser energy of 120 mJ, delay time detection of 2 μs and accumulation of 3, with and without cleaning. The purpose of this study is to determine emission spectra characteristics, contained elements, and physical characteristics of each amethyst sample. The spectra show that the amethyst samples contain some elements such as Al, Ca, K, Fe, Gd, Ba, Si, Be, H, O, N, Cl and Pu with various emission intensities. The value of emission intensity corresponds to concentration of element in the sample. Hence, the characteristics of the amethysts are based on their concentration value. The element with the highest concentration in all samples is Si, which is related to the chemical formula of SiO2. The element with the lowest concentration in all samples is Ca that is found in black and yellow amethysts. The emission intensity of Fe element can distinguish between white, purple, and yellow amethyst. If Fe emission intensity is very low, it indicates yellow sample. Thus, we may conclude that LIBS is a method that can be used to characterize the amethyst samples.Key words: amethyst, impurity, laser-induced, breakdown spectroscopy, characteristic, gemstones


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
ZENG Qing-dong ◽  
◽  
YUAN Meng-tian ◽  
ZHU Zhi-heng ◽  
CHEN Guang-hui ◽  
...  

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