Introduction to Raman Spectroscopy as a Characterization Tool for Carbon Nanotubes, Graphene, and other Carbon Nanostructures

While there have been many publications produced in which Raman spectroscopy has been used to characterize various aspects of carbon nanostructures, there have only been a few works published which provide an overview of what the technique can offer to the field of carbon nanostructures, and works which discuss optimization of analysis parameters and the variation that is observed as those parameters are varied are still lacking. This work will provide an overview of the information that Raman spectroscopy can provide on carbon nanostructures with emphasis placed on carbon nanotubes and graphene. This work will go further to demonstrate the impact that varying key analysis parameters such as laser power and laser excitation will have on the measurements. The goal of this work is to provide people who are looking to characterize carbon nanostructures with an understanding of what Raman spectroscopy can offer and with some insight on how to optimize measurement conditions.