Highly sensitive determination of lanthanides by nanochain enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Abstract

This study represents a highly sensitive approach for determination of lanthanides by nanochain enhanced laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Owing to geometrical characteristics of nanochains, the hotspot in the gap between Ag NPs in nanochains offered an intense plasmonic field for LIBS signal enhancement. Remarkably, nanochain enhanced LIBS for determining Ce, La and Pr elements yielded an outstanding limit of detection (LOD): 27.47, 85.71 and 65.11 ng mL⁻¹, respectively, indicating that the nanochain configuration exhibited enhanced LIBS signal response. The preponderant performances of the well-aligned nanoparticle sensor in elemental analysis open up its possibilities for nanochain enhanced LIBS in sensitive elemental detection.