Applications of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in corrosion detection in reinforced concrete materials: a critical review

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a powerful elemental detection and quantification technique widely employed across various disciplines, including science, engineering, construction, and medicine. This comprehensive review focuses on the recent advancements and challenges in utilizing LIBS for corrosion detection, specifically emphasizing reinforced concrete structures. While LIBS has demonstrated its reliability in corrosion assessment, its adoption as a standardized method is not yet widespread. Identifying and quantifying contaminant elements in targeted structures are crucial steps in corrosion investigation. This review reveals how LIBS can effectively extract elemental contaminants and their relative intensities from samples, establishing correlations with the degree of corrosion. Given that corrosion rate is time-dependent, rapid and accurate techniques like LIBS are essential for timely measurements, enabling multiple instantaneous assessments of contaminant levels. Various calibration techniques and accuracy-enhancing methods are discussed, including calibration curves, chemometrics, and dual-pulsed LIBS approaches for measuring constituent elements. Furthermore, a range of applications for LIBS in concrete technology, cement paste analysis, soil investigations, fluid analysis, and quality control in cement factories are explored. By providing an in-depth understanding of LIBS capabilities and its potential as a reliable and rapid approach for corrosion rate detection in different materials, this study offers valuable insights to researchers, engineers, and industry professionals in pursuing effective corrosion assessment methodologies.