In this paper, the first application of Calibration-Free Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (CF-LIBS) to Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis is presented.
The concentration of the main minerals present in human hair has been measured on several subjects by CF-LIBS and compared with the results obtained through a commercial analytical laboratory.
LIBS spectra are acquired in single laser shots on the same hair; this procedure allows tracing the variation in time of the hair mineral content. Moreover, LIBS measurements at different positions along the hair length could also allow the determination of the occurrence of possible metal intoxication with a precision only limited by the time needed by the body to metabolize the intoxicant and the hair to accumulate it.
The extremely limited amount of hair tissue needed for the CF-LIBS analysis (a few millimetres long single hair) might also open interesting perspectives for this technique whenever the amount of sample to analyse is very small, as is usual, for example, in forensic applications.