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

This study represents a highly sensitive approach of determination of lanthanides by nanochain enhanced laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Owing to geometrical characteristics of the nanochains, the hotspot in the gap between Ag NPs in nanochains offered an intense plasmonic field for the LIBS signal enhancement. Remarkably, the nanochain enhanced LIBS for determining Ce and La element yielded outstanding limit of detection (LOD): 27.47 and 85.71 ng/mL, 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.