Stoichiometric analysis of ammonium nitrate and ammonium perchlorate with nanosecond laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

Abstract

We present our results on the stoichiometric analysis of ammonium nitrate (AN) and ammonium Perchlorate (AP) studied using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) with nanosecond pulses. The LIBS spectra collected for AP and AN, without any gating and using a high resolution spectrometer, exhibited characteristic lines corresponding to O, N, H, C, and K. The Oxygen line at 777.38 nm and three Nitrogen lines (N1, N2, N3) at 742.54 nm, 744.64 nm, 747.12 nm were used for evaluating the Oxygen/Nitrogen ratios. The intensities were calculated using area under the peaks and normalized to their respective transition probabilities and statistical weights. The O/N1 ratios estimated from the LIBS spectra were ∼4.94 and ∼5.11 for AP and O/N3 ratios were ∼1.64 and ∼1.47 for AN obtained from two independent measurements. The intensity ratios show good agreement with the actual stoichiometric ratios - four for AP and one for AN. © 2010 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.