Quantitative Analysis of Carbon Content in Bituminous Coal by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Using UV Laser Radiation

The carbon content of bituminous coal samples was analyzed by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. The 266 nm laser radiation was utilized for laser ablation and plasma generation in air. The partial least square method and the dominant factor based PLS method were used to improve the measurement accuracy of the carbon content of coal. The results showed that the PLS model could achieve good measurement accuracy, and the dominant factor based PLS model could further improve the measurement accuracy. The coefficient of determination and the root-mean-square error of prediction of the PLS model were 0.97 and 2.19%, respectively; and those values for the dominant factor based PLS model were 0.99 and 1.51%, respectively. The results demonstrated that the 266 nm wavelength could accurately measure the carbon content of bituminous coal.

supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51276100) and the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2013CB228501). The authors also thank the financial funding from the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (No. 2013CB228501)