Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Arnoldus, Hendrik F.

Committee Member

Singh, Jagdish P.

Committee Member

Monts, David L.

Committee Member

McIntyre, Dustin

Committee Member

Jha, Ratneshwar

Date of Degree

5-4-2018

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Applied Physics

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Applied Physics Program

Abstract

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been established as a rapid, in situ, and real-time spectroscopic analytical technique for material characterization. It is very handy for the study of all kinds of materials irrespective of their state. After being used for a Mars mission, LIBS has gained global attention and many scientific researches are investigating its applications. The main objective of this dissertation is to study the possibility of using laser spectroscopic sensing techniques for material characterization and if possible, to develop methodologies. Studying molecular emission spectra for elemental analysis is a relatively new trend in the spectroscopic field. Molecular emission from SrCl and SrO observed in LIBS spectra were analyzed and compared with atomic emission from Sr. Calibration models were developed using both molecular bands and atomic spectral peaks. The determination of nutritional elements in crops, vegetables, and fruits is very important to evaluate their nutritional status. The LIBS technique was applied to identify the nutritional elements present in cauliflower and broccoli, and to evaluate the difference between organic and conventional vegetables in terms of nutritional elements. Principal component analysis (PCA) and one-to-one comparison using Student's t-test were employed for discrimination between organic and conventional vegetable flowers. Early iron and steel production in the state of Pennsylvania (United States) mostly utilized blast furnaces that were operated by charcoal as a primary fuel, followed by anthracite, then coke. The process left behind a by-product known as blast furnace slag. Blast furnace slag, non-metallic in nature, appears to have various industrial applications. LIBS was used for the analysis of charcoal blast furnace slags and qualitative as well as quantitative analyses were demonstrated. To evaluate the possibility of using the LIBS technique to detect and quantify rare earth elements, three consecutive studies were executed. Firstly, pure oxides of six rare earth elements were studied and then real samples directly taken from natural ores were analyzed. In the third step, two rare earth elements (Eu and Yb) in aqueous solutions were studied by underwater LIBS and the pressure effect on the plasma emission is discussed.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/19693

Comments

Material characterization||LIBS

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