Semi quantitative Elemental Analysis of Volcanic Ashes by LIBS Spectroscopy: correction factors for systematic biases

C. COSTA VERA; G. VÁZQUEZ; D. M. DÍAZ PACE

Congreso; Colloquium Spectroscopicum Internationale XLI (CSIXLI) and first Latin-American Meeting on Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LAMLIBS); 2019

LIBS was applied to the elementary analysis of 18 volcanic ash samples from recent volcanic activity of the Tungurahua volcano. Suitable preparation methods were proposed and explored for the ashes. Quantitative analysis was performed by Calibration-free LIBS. A comparison of CF-LIBS results with Rx-EDS and ICP-AES was made. From this, systematic quantitative biases were detected, and conveniently, a unique suitable correction factor was deemed necessary to fix the elementary abundances determined with LIBS. With this, LIBS demonstrates its value as an approximate general quantification technique, with a potential for direct application in the field.