Quantitative Analysis of Nutrient Elements in Soil Using Single and Double-Pulse Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy.

Yong He,Jiyu Peng,Fei Liu,Yangyang Lv,Yu Tang,Xiaodan Liu,Shaoming Luo,Tingting Shen,Yun Zhao

doi:10.3390/s18051526

Abstract

Rapid detection of soil nutrient elements is beneficial to the evaluation of crop yield, and it’s of great significance in agricultural production. The aim of this work was to compare the detection ability of single-pulse (SP) and collinear double-pulse (DP) laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for soil nutrient elements and obtain an accurate and reliable method for rapid detection of soil nutrient elements. 63 soil samples were collected for SP and collinear DP signal acquisition, respectively. Macro-nutrients (K, Ca, Mg) and micro-nutrients (Fe, Mn, Na) were analyzed. Three main aspects of all elements were investigated, including spectral intensity, signal stability, and detection sensitivity. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and relative standard deviation (RSD) of elemental spectra were applied to evaluate the stability of SP and collinear DP signals. In terms of detection sensitivity, the performance of chemometrics models (univariate and multivariate analysis models) and the limit of detection (LOD) of elements were analyzed, and the results indicated that the DP-LIBS technique coupled with PLSR could be an accurate and reliable method in the quantitative determination of soil nutrient elements.

Highlights

Soil is the foundation of crop growth, and plays an important role in the whole ecosystem [1].In particular, soil nutrient elements, including macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients, are the basic resources for preserving the surface ecosystem
Considering that the spectral intensity is relevant to the concentration of multiple lines of an element, we took the difference of spectral lines into account, and found that elements, we compared the spectral intensities at different element concentrations
This research focused on the comparison of the ability of SP-laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and collinear DP-LIBS for the quantitative determination of soil nutrient elements

Summary

Introduction

Soil is the foundation of crop growth, and plays an important role in the whole ecosystem [1].In particular, soil nutrient elements, including macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients, are the basic resources for preserving the surface ecosystem. Soil is the foundation of crop growth, and plays an important role in the whole ecosystem [1]. The content of nutrient elements can reflect the fertility of the soil, and are considered an important index of crop yield evaluation [2]. The main methods for the detection of nutrient elements in soil include laboratory chemical analysis, such as atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) [3]; inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) [4]; and inductively-coupled. Sensors 2018, 18, 1526 plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) [5]. These traditional chemical detection methods are time-consuming, complex, and cannot meet the demands of real-time detection

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Conclusion