On-site Detection and Identification of Chemical Warfare Agents with portable LIBS system
Abstract
Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) offers a unique in-situ capability to detect chemical contamination on any surface by a laser interrogation of the material. It consists in focusing a pulsed laser beam onto the surface of the material to initiate a plasma and recording the UV-Visible emission spectrum from that plasma. This spectrum is a signature of the chemical elements present in the ablated volume of the sample. LIBS is a fully optical method which allows to perform real time, in situ and remote analysis without any sample preparation.Portable LIBS instruments have been developed and enable on-site measurements with immediate response. Our team has a deep experience in LIBS and has developed a methodology for Chemical Warfare Agents (CWA) detection and identification, based on the use of an EasyLIBSTM (IVEA Solution) instrument. Indeed, CWA are organic molecules with elemental fingerprints (Chlorine, Fluorine, Phosphorus, Sulfur and/or Arsenic), which are particularly suited for their identification by LIBS. The results of our measurements on real CWA will be presented and discussed.
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)