The stress of environmental pollution has had a negative effective on the quality of soil available for agricultural use worldwide. The toxins trapped within the soil not only destroy the land, but spreads out to impact the ecosystem in the area, eventually effecting the human inhabitants. While there are methods in place to aid in soil clean up, these practices only serve to assuage the source of the problem. Due to these ineffective practices of repairing soil quality the scientific community has been searching for a better method of solving the issue. Phytoremediation is a new technique in environmental rehabilitation and can treat a wide range of hazardous materials while remaining undisruptive of the environment. While there are advances in the practice, there are several key concepts that have yet to be explained and halt the commercialization of the method. With progress being made in spectroscopic techniques, researchers are hoping to uncover the missing links in discovering how phytoremediation occurs. One of those advancing techniques is Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy. More commonly known as LIBS, the technique may be able to observe trends not previously noted in species selected for phytoremediation.

The main focus of this research was to increase the comprehensive understanding of phytoremedial accumulation using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy. The hyperaccumulators used include: Sunflower (Healianthus annus) and Kale (Brassica oleracea). Using these samples, a correlation was observed between an increasing concentration of heavy metal and the amount of absorbed heavy metal stored within the plant species. Observation of the absorption process also aided in the discovery of other significant characteristics concerning hyperaccumulators.