A Simple Introduction to Raman Spectral Identification of Organic Materials

Abstract

By now, it is well known that Raman spectroscopy has the potential to be used for a variety of analytical applications, and that the hurdles to using the technique 30–40 years ago have been largely overcome. However, a remaining impediment to exploiting the technology is that very few analysts have the ability to know what they are looking at. Even if there is experience in infrared (IR) spectroscopy, which looks at similar molecular vibrations, making the Raman measurements and interpreting the results will be quite different. There are databases and searching programs that can aid the analyst, but using these resources effectively also requires a learning curve. What I am going to try to do in this article is provide some advice for dealing with those situations where the searching program does not provide a definitive result.