Comments on "Sensitive analysis of carbon, chromium and silicon in steel using picosecond laser induced low pressure helium plasma"

In the paper "Sensitive analysis of carbon, chromium and silicon in steel using picosecond laser induced low pressure helium plasma" by Syahrun Nur Abdulmadjid, Nasrullah Idris, Marincan Pardede, Eric Jobiliong, Rinda Hedwig, Zener Sukra Lie, Hery Suyanto, May On Tjia, Koo Hendrik Kumiawan and Kiichiro Kagawa [Spectrochim. Acta Part B 114 (2015) 1-6], the authors presented experimental study to demonstrate the sensitive detection of C, Cr and Si in low-alloy steels under low pressure He atmosphere. Although the use of only UV-VIS spectral range for determination of these elements seems to be a beneficial, the point that needs to be commented is the result of carbon determination with the use of C I 247.856 nm line. Thermodynamic modeling based on the NIST and R. Kurucz data for the different excitation conditions in plasma demonstrates that it is hardly possible to distinguish any carbon signal due to significantly intensive iron line Fe II 247.857 nm. Authors are kindly requested to re-consider this part of their study. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.