U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

Effect of Powder Compact Density on the LIBS Analysis of Ni Impurities in Alumina Powders

NCJ Number
253982
Journal
Spectrochimica Acta Part B-Atomic Spectroscopy Volume: 148 Dated: October 2018 Pages: 99-104
Date Published
October 2018
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This study examined the influence of pellets of aluminum oxide powder-compacts density on the calibration curve of nickel contaminant.
Abstract

The quantification of elemental impurities in aluminum oxide powder is important due to its large demand for various industrial applications. One of the techniques to perform such analysis is Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and to that end, powders are usually pressed into pellets; however, the density of the powder-compact is often not reported and its effect on the analytical figure-of-merit is unknown. The results of the current study indicate that the sensitivity increases when the grain size increases for a given density and that its relative standard deviation decreases with the density of the powder compacts without any grain size effect. These results imply that both the powder-compact density and the ultimate particle size of the powders must be specified in the protocol for building the calibration curve. (publisher abstract modified)

Date Published: October 1, 2018