Analytical applications of Raman spectroscopy

During the last decade, the analytical capabilities of Raman spectroscopy have changed fundamentally. Due to the technical development, relatively cheap, portable Raman devices for onsite analysis can be now constructed. Moreover, for some molecules in special metal nano-resonators, the efficiency of Raman scattering (in so-called surface-enhanced Raman scattering-SERS) is so high, that, when using SERS-sensors, a limit of detection even of the order of 10(-18) mol dm(-3) can be achieved for some analytes. Therefore, dramatically increased usage of SERS spectroscopy for analysis of industrial, biological, medical and environmental samples has recently been observed. The aim of this mini-review is thus to illustrate the main analytical applications of Raman spectroscopy-especially SERS spectroscopy. We mainly focus on the applications developed within the period from 2004 up to now. Future perspectives in this field are also discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.