Laser ablation in liquids as a new technique of sampling in elemental analysis of solid materials

Laser ablation in liquid media is considered as a new sample preparation technique in the elemental composition analysis of materials using optical emission spectroscopy of inductively coupled plasma (ICP-OES). Solid samples are transformed into uniform colloidal solutions of nanosized analyte particles using laser radiation focused onto the sample surface. High homogeneity of the resulting solution allows performing the ICP-OES quantitative analysis especially for the samples, which are poorly soluble in acids. The technique is compatible with the conventional solution-based standards.