Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer for Trace Elemental Analysis of food and cosmetic products

This research proposal is being submitted to the Deanship of Research of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals for the development of a laser-based spectroscopic technique known as laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for a specific application such as elemental analysis of cosmetic and food products. This method is based on the detection of emission spectra of plasma resulting from interaction of intense laser radiations with the sample (food and cosmetic products) material. The unique features of LIBS are: low analysis cost per sample, ability to analyze a large number of samples in a short amount of time, measurement precision sufficient for screening many elements of interest in a short span of time, high sensitivity, and the possibility of remote and in situ detections. LIBS has been applied in many applications, covering a wide variety of areas such as pollution monitoring (contaminants in liquid, solid and gaseous samples), trace element analysis of soil, water, samples, immediate determination of ore grades during mining as well industrial chemical process control, and identification of plastics. However very limited applications of LIBS have been carried so far. The principal objective of this project is to develop, a sensitive LIBS system to detect trace levels of heavy and carcinogenic/hazardous metals such as Cd, Cr, Pb, Hg Cl, Ni and V present in food and cosmetic products available in the local market. The presence of heavy metals in food and cosmetic products beyond a permissible level can wreak havoc on human health and their well being. Pulsed laser radiation using a YAG laser (fundamental, second, third and fourth harmonic) will be employed for the generation of laser induced breakdown spectra. The atomic emission lines will be spectrally analyzed using an optical spectrometer and detected with a gated ICCD camera. Atomic emission spectra of different elements (toxic and non-toxic) contained in unknown samples will be recorded in the 200 1100 nm region. The observed spectral lines will be assigned to transitions in the atoms of the materials under investigation. The finger print wavelength of these detected spectral lines will be used for identification and determination of the concentration of above mentioned poisonous elements present in the food and cosmetic products available locally. Moreover, undergraduate and graduate students will be trained, working part-time on this project. The proposed work will be completed in 36 working months and a final report will be submitted at the end of the project. The total cost of this project will be 382,300 (Three hundred eighty two thousands and three hundred).