Classification of Ceramic Tableware by Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy and Chemometrics

Ceramics manufactured in Brazil and in other countries were analyzed by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The LIBS spectra were employed to identify the origin of the tableware as produced in Brazil or abroad using soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Three sets of spectral variables were evaluated aiming at discrimination of the ceramics: the entire LIBS spectrum, a set of selected spectral ranges, and the maximum of emission intensity of the elements Al, Ca, Mg, Si, Na and Ti. The results for the three sets of variables show good performance, achieving correct classification from 88.6 to 94.3%, and 86.7 to 100% for the external training and test, respectively.