II SPECTRAL-LINES; ATOMIC TRANSITION-PROBABILITIES; STARK-BROADENING PARAMETERS; CALIBRATION-FREE; INDUCEDPLASMA; QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS; CRITICAL COMPILATION; SELF-ABSORPTION; WIDTHS; SHIFTS
We report a validation experiment of the C sigma-LIBS method, proposed recently by our group for quantitative laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. This method is applied to determine eight elements (Si, Al, Ca, Mg, Fe, Ti, Mn, and V) in rocks prepared as fused glass samples, having a wide range of certified concentrations. The characterization stage of the method is performed using only two standard fused glass samples prepared from mixtures of pure compounds (SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3 and CaCO3). The average precision obtained is 3.4% for concentrations higher than 0.1 wt%. This validation suggests that the accuracy and precision of this technique, if combined with fused glass sample preparation under favourable conditions, may become as good as those produced by certification laboratories.