Elemental analysis of bottle glass by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy based on TEA CO ₂ laser

This study focuses on the quantitative elemental analysis of colored beverage glass bottles using LIBS with a TEA CO2 laser. Analyzing the composition of bottle glass is critical for ensuring product quality, consumer safety and supporting recycling efforts. Analytical techniques such as XRF, ICP-MS, and ICP-OES often require complex sample preparation and are destructive, limiting their applicability for rapid or in situ analysis. LIBS overcomes these limitations by providing fast, minimally destructive, and direct elemental analysis without sample preparation. Our research demonstrates the effectiveness of LIBS based on low pulse energy TEA CO2 laser in identifying major and trace elements in glass bottles, highlighting its potential as a valuable tool in waste management, forensic, and quality control. The resulting spectra contain well-resolved lines of atoms and single charged ions of the elements present in the glass, with a signal-to-noise ratio suitable for sensitive chemical analysis. Using the concentration values obtained by the XRF analytical technique, the limits of detection obtained for most elements were in the range of 4–32 ppm, low enough for classifying glass samples. The Boltzmann plot method was used to ascertain the excitation temperature of the plasma. The iron lines were used for the Boltzmann plot construction, and the temperature values of 7300 K and 13,800 K were obtained for the atomic and ionic lines, respectively. The electron number density was determined by using the Stark-broadened emission profile of the Fe II 261.19 nm line, the obtained value was (Formula presented.)