Rapid Analysis of Slags by Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy was applied to the rapid analysis of slags in coordination with the steel-smelting process. Aiming to the necessity of practice of steel production, a novel designing for the analytical instrumentation was proposed and an initiative development of an analytical software was also made to accomplish automation and control of the analytical instrumentation, pretreatment of spectrometric data, linear-fitting of calibration curves, and finally direct displaying of analytical results. Samples for analysis were prepared either by direct sampling from the molten slag or by the pressing method. Accuracy of analytical results was found to be improved by using standard samples of different species in preparation of different calibration curves. Values of RMSEC and RMSECV of the calibration model were found to be 0.187 and 0.275 respectively. Content of Mg in a sample of protective slag was determined by the proposed method for 10 parallel determinations, giving results ranged from 0.205% to 0.209%, showing high precision of the method.