Commercial LIBS Systems

Companies that make commercial LIBS systems or custom-made devices include Applied Photonics Ltd. (www.appliedphotonics.co.uk) Applied Spectra, Inc. (www.appliedspectra.com) Bertin Technologies (www.bertin.fr) Energy Research Co. (www.er-co.com) IVEA (www. ivea-solution.com/libs/) LTB Lasertechnik Berlin (www.ltb-berlin.de) Marwan (www.marwan-technology.com) Ocean Optics, Inc. (www.oceanoptics.com) TSI, Inc. (www.tsi.com). Photon Machines, Inc. (www.photon-machines.com) and StellarNet (www.stellamet-inc.com). Applications notes, videos, and technical information on LIBS are available on most of these companies websites. 

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This paper presents an overview of the current research issues and commercialization efforts related to laser ablation for chemical analysis, discusses several fundamental studies of laser ablation using time-resolved shadowgraph and spectroscopic imaging, and describes recent data using nanosecond laser pulsed ablation sampling for ICP-MS and LIBS. Efforts towards commercialization of field based LIBS systems also will be described. 

Understanding how nanoenergetic materials are both made and consumed requires the ability to monitor these processes widi real time in-situ diagnostic techniques. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is an optical technique that can detect all the elements simultaneously from very small sanq>les of material. Only four elements are needed to implement this technique an excitation source, delivery and collecting optics, a detector with wavelength dispersion capability, and a conqtuter for control and anal is. Because of these relatively sinq>le requirements, a conq>lete LIBS system can be made contact, rugged, and fairly ine q>ensively. Spectrometers are now becoming commercially... 

Soon after commercialization, the Li-ion battery (LIB) system became a popular choice because of its high-energy density, good performance, and no memory effect as occurred with nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) or nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries. LIBs have been primarily used for portable electronics, especially cellular phones and notebook computers. Recently, the application area has been extended to power tools, electric bikes, and energy storage systems. Several companies are now working toward adapting the lithium-ion system for use in electric drive vehicle (EDV) applications. 

For personal computers, a number of packages are available which have modules for solving various classes of network flow problems (see Oberstone 1990, chaps. 7, 8 for additional information). The CPLEX (www.cplex.com), OSL (www.6.software.ibm.com/es/oslvZ/features/lib.htm), SAS/ OR (www.sas.com), and LINDO (www.Undo.com) commercial systems have network flow modules and run on machines ranging from mainframes to workstations and personal computers. Also, Michael Trick (mat.gsiacmu.edu/companies.html) has assembled a set of World Wide Web Unks to a variety of companies that offer OR software including network optimization routines. 

The spectra are processed by computer software that now often includes advanced chemomet-ric methods (see the discussion of chemometrics in Section 4.7.2.1). Methods such as partial least squares (PLS) and principal component analysis are used by instrument software to construct calibration curves and provide quantitative analysis. LIBS software on many commercial systems supports library matching, sample classification, qualitative, semiquantitative and quantitative analysis including preloaded libraries and calibrations, and customer-built libraries and calibrations. 

Battery safety has been obviously given a special attention in this volume. Commercial lithium-ion cells and batteries are commonly used to power portable equipment, but they are also used to buildup larger batteries for ground (e.g. EVs), space and underwater applications. Chapter 17 provides test data on the safety of commercial lithium-ion cells and recommendations for safe design when these cells are used in much larger battery configurations. Chapter 18 focuses on safety aspects of LIBs at the cell and system level. In particular, abuse tolerance tests are explained with actual cell test data. Furthermore, internal short and lithium deposition occurring in lithium-ion cells and failure mechanism associated with them are discussed. In Chapter 19, the state of the art for safety optimization of all the battery elements is presented. This chapter also reports tests on not yet commercialized batteries, which pass all the security tests without the help of a BMS. 

A typical commercial lithium-ion battery system consists of a carbonaceous anode, an organic electrolyte that acts as an ionic path between electrodes and separates the two electrode materials, and a transition metal oxide (such as LiCoOa, LiMu204, and LiNiOa) cathode. Recently a variety of novel LIB components have been proposed, like tin-based alloys and disordered carbons as anode materials, and modifications to the conventional transition metal-oxide cathode made by coating it with metal-oxide nanoparticles, most of which are discussed in detail in this book. 

High power batteries have been widely studied as an energy source for eco-friendly transportation systems including hybrid electric vehicles, electric motors, ships, and aircraft that can be operated with little or no oil consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, as compared to conventional systems with an internal combustion engine [1-3], The lithium-ion battery (LIB) has been one of the most promising substitutes for the nickel metal hydride battery used in most of the hybrid eleetrie vehieles (HEVs) commercially available today [4],... 

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