The in situ detection of smoking in public area by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

The cigarette smoke in public area could be harmful to the non-smokers. In this paper, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is applied to the in situ detection of the cigarette smoke in public area, and the single particles aerosol mass spectrometer (SPAMS) is utilized to aid the elemental analysis as well as realize the isotope detection. According to the obtained emission spectra, the smoke consists of Mg, Ca, Sr, Na, K elements which are absent in air, and the concentrations of H₂O and CO₂ in smoke increase obviously. Moreover, the cigarette ash after burning is taken as the sample for off-line detection and several heavy metal elements are detected. The comparison between the spectra of cigarette smoke and ash shows that these two kinds of detection are greatly different in terms of constituent and plasma status. In addition, the molecular emission of Carbon-Nitrogen was observed in smoke spectrum, and the molecular vibrational and rotational temperature of CN molecule was calculated. Finally, the LIBS and SPAMS were applied to the semi-quantitative detection and isotope analysis of Pb in the smoke.