Development of a Method for the Determination of Chromium and Cadmium in Tannery Wastewater Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

This paper illustrates systematic development of a convenient analytical method for the determination of chromium and cadmium in tannery wastewater using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). A new approach was developed by which liquid was converted into solid phase sample surface using abso...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mahwish Bukhari, M. Ali Awan, Ishtiaq A. Qazi, M. Anwar Baig
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2012-01-01
Series:Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/823016
Description
Summary:This paper illustrates systematic development of a convenient analytical method for the determination of chromium and cadmium in tannery wastewater using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). A new approach was developed by which liquid was converted into solid phase sample surface using absorption paper for subsequent LIBS analysis. The optimized values of LIBS parameters were 146.7 mJ for chromium and 89.5 mJ for cadmium (laser pulse energy), 4.5 μs (delay time), 70 mm (lens to sample surface distance), and 7 mm (light collection system to sample surface distance). Optimized values of LIBS parameters demonstrated strong spectrum lines for each metal keeping the background noise at minimum level. The new method of preparing metal standards on absorption papers exhibited calibration curves with good linearity with correlation coefficients, R2 in the range of 0.992 to 0.998. The developed method was tested on real tannery wastewater samples for determination of chromium and cadmium.
ISSN:2090-8865
2090-8873