Applications of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy and Laser Breakdown Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry to Thermal Power Plants

Abstract

breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) is an analytical technique based on atomic emission spectroscopy to measure elemental composition. Time-of- fl ight mass spectrometry(TOFMS) is another appeal-ing technique for the analysis of atomic and molecular ion signals with the increased sensitivity and rapid analysis features. LIBS and laser breakdown time-of-flight mass spectrometry(LB-TOFMS) were employed in the applications of thermal power plants. The measurement of coal and fl y ash contents is the essential foundation for the adjustment of boiler combustion in thermal power plant. Rapid detection of coal and fl y ash is signi fi cant to improve the ef fi ciency of thermal power plant and to reduce the environmental pollutions. The pollutions of trace heavy metals in exhaust result in the serious in fl uence on environment and human. First step of the pollution control is the fast and precise measurement of pollutants. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has a great potential application of on-line measurement in thermal power plant. The direct measurement of particles using LIBS was studied. The LIBS method was also improved to measure the gas phase trace species, as well as the combined method of LIBS and time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS). These results will be useful for the applications of LIBS and TOFMS.