Discrimination of bacteria from Jamaican bauxite soils using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.

Soil bacteria are sensitive to ecological change and can be assessed to gauge anthropogenic influences and ecosystem health. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the focus on new technologies that can be applied to the evaluation of soil quality. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a promising technique that has been used for the investigation and characterization of explosives, solids, liquids, gases, biological and environmental samples. In this study, bacteria from un-mined and a chronosequence of reclaimed bauxite soils were isolated on Luria-Bertani agar media. Polymerase chain reaction amplification of the bacterial 16S rDNA, sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis were applied to each isolated soil bacteria from the sample sites resulting in the identification and classification of the organisms. Femtosecond LIBS performed on the isolated bacteria showed atomic and ionic emission lines in the spectrum containing inorganic elements such as sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), zinc (Zn), and calcium (Ca). Principal component analysis and partial least squares regression analysis were performed on the acquired bacterial spectra demonstrating that LIBS has the potential to differentiate and discriminate among bacteria in the un-mined and reclaimed chronosequence of bauxite soils.

Plasma dynamics in double-pulse LIBS on dicarboxylic acids using combined 532 nm Nd:YAG and carbon dioxide laser pulses.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was used as a method to monitor the evolution of C, hydrogen-α, carbon-carbon, and carbon-nitrogen spectral emissions from atmospheric recombination in a specific set of organic materials. Ablated samples were composed of a series of linear chain dicarboxylic acids with two to seven C atoms. Accumulated pulses of a focused neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) Q-switched laser beam operated at 532 nm generate a plasma in air at the sample surface. In this work, a dual-pulse LIBS technique was used to improve signal strength by enhancing the nanosecond LIBS plasma with CO2 transverse-excited breakdown in atmosphere laser pulses with an operating wavelength of 10.6 µm. Through a time-resolved analysis, we demonstrate the correlation between the signal strength of selected emissions and the number of C atoms in the linear chain. We also illustrate the effects that these constraints, along with the presence of a chiral C in the chain, have on the peak intensities of the individual lines with respect to each other by comparing the increase or nonexistence of certain spectral lines as we increase the number of C atoms in the linear chain.