Chromium in soil detection using adaptive weighted normalization and linear weighted network framework for LIBS matrix effect reduction

Rapid and accurate detection of agricultural soil chromium (Cr) is of great significance for soil pollution assessment. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) could serve as a rapid and chemical-free method for hazardous metal analysis compared with conventional chemical methods. However, the detection of LIBS is interfered by uncertainty and matrix effect. In this study, an average strategy combined with linear weighted network (LWNet) was proposed to reduce the uncertainty. Adaptive weighted normalization-LWNet (AWN-LWNet) framework was proposed to reduce the matrix effect in two soil types. The results indicated that LWNet outperformed traditional machine learning and achieved the average relative error (ARE) of 2.08 % and 3.03 % for yellow brown soil and lateritic red soil, respectively. Moreover, LWNet could effectively mine Cr feature peaks even under the low spectral resolution. AWN-LWNet was the optimal model compared with commonly used models to reduce matrix effect (ARE=4.12 %). Besides, AWN-LWNet greatly reduced the number (from 22016 to 72) of spectral variables for model input. By extracting Cr peaks from models, the difference of Cr peaks intensity could be intuitively observed, which served as spectral interpretation for matrix effect reduction. The two methods have the potential to realize the detection of hazardous metals in soil by LIBS. [Display omitted] •LWNet outperformed machine learning in Cr LIBS quantitative analysis.•Matrix effect was reduced by AWN-LWNet framework.•Spectra interpretation for matrix effect reduction was realized.•Rapid and chemical-free detection of Cr-contaminated soil was established.