Quantitative analysis of cement raw materials based on nanoparticle-enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

The nanoparticle-enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (NELIBS) technique has attracted much attention because of its significant spectral enhancement as well as the reduction of spectral noise. More NELIBS studies have focused on the effect of nanoparticles on spectral intensity and the optimization of experiments. NELIBS has not been studied for the detection of cement raw material components and the repeatability of quantitative analysis. In this paper, the effect of NELIBS on the spectral quality as well as the repeatability of the quantitative analysis of cement raw materials is investigated. The effects of different AuNP sizes and volumes on LIBS brought about by pre-ablation were compared and modeled for quantitative analysis. The results showed that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of NELIBS spectra after pre-ablation was improved from 2.72 to 7.81, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of CaO, SiO₂, Al₂O₃, and Fe₂O₃ in cement raw materials were reduced by 47%, 30%, 31%, and 33%, respectively. In summary, this paper provides a comprehensive discussion and comparison of AuNPs versus LIBS for quantitative analysis of cement raw material components, and also provides a new solution for quantitative analysis of cement raw materials.