Examination of the Capability of the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) Technique as the Emerging Laser-Based Analytical Tool for Analyzing Trace Elements in Coal

Due to its superior advantageous over the conventional analytical tools, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique nowadays is becoming an emerging analytical tools and it is expected to be new future super star of analytical tool. This technique is based on the use of optical emission from the laser-induced plasma for analyzing spectrochemically the constituent and content of the sampled object. The capability of this technique is examined on analysis of trace elements in coal sample. Coal is one difficult sample to analyze due to its complex chemical composition and physical properties. It is inherent that coal contains trace element including heavy metal, thus mining, beneficiation and utilization poses hazard to environment and to human beings. The LIBS apparatus used was composed by a laser system (Nd-YAG: Quanta Ray; LAB SERIES; 1,064 nm; 500 mJ; 8 ns) and optical detector (McPherson model 2061; 1,000 mm focal length; f/8.6 Czerny-Turner) equipped with Andor I*Star intensified CCD 1024x256 pixels. The emitted laser was focused onto coal sample with a focusing lens of +250 mm. The plasma emission was collected by a fiber optics and sent to the the spectrograph. The coal samples were taken from Province of Aceh. As the results, several trace elements including heavy metal (As, Mn, Pb) can surely be observed, implying the eventuality of LIBS technique to analysis the presence of trace element in coal.