Applications of Raman Spectroscopy:
Since its discovery in the year of 1928, Raman spectroscopy has been recognised as an extremely powerful analytical tool capable of giving information not available from other analytical techniques. A recent advances in instrumentation have made Raman spectroscopy the tool of selection for an increasing number of chemical and biological applications and the study of coordination complexes.
Raman spectroscopy could be used for quantitative and qualitative analysis of inorganic, organic and biological samples. The quantitative analysis is based on the intensity of the Raman scattered light being proportional to concentration although the qualitative determinations depend on the wavelength shifts being variant for a huge range of different molecular vibrations. Because a Raman spectrum typically holds a number of well-resolved spectral bands, the information available as the band positions, shapes, and intensities etc. constitute a unique fingerprint of the molecule that could be exploited for qualitative analysis.
The organic compounds hold functional groups along with highly deformable electron clouds and are good scatterers of the radiation. Some significant functional groups involve alkenes, cyano, alkynes etc. The stretching vibrations of these functional groups provides rise to weak and undetectable IR signals while in Raman spectra these are quite strong and can provide useful information about the environment of the group in the molecule. Further, Raman spectroscopy is extremely useful for measuring symmetric vibrations from the C-C bonds in the backbone of polymers and diatomic molecules like N2, O2, etc.