Raman spectroscopy of carbon materials and their composites: Graphene, nanotubes and fibres

Raman spectroscopy is now an extremely important technique for the analysis of carbon-based materials. It is demonstrated how it can be used to give a unique insight into characterising many aspects of the microstructure of these materials, including orientation, number of layers, defects and doping, enabling standardisation and quality control. Graphene, as the building block of all sp2 carbon materials is used as the main example and it is demonstrated how the under-standing of this material has facilitated the analysis of carbon nanotubes and fibres. It is also shown that the Raman bands shift during deformation and that these shifts are related through a universal calibration. It is demonstrated how these stress-induced Raman band shifts can be used to follow the deformation of the carbon-based materials and that this can be employed for the study of the interfacial micromechanics in model composite specimens. Finally the application of Raman spectroscopy to the characterisation of the structure and physical properties, both me-chanical and thermal, of bulk carbon-based composites is described in detail. The application of Raman spectroscopy to the study of a broader range of materials and the potential for instru-mental innovations to enable further extension of the technique are discussed briefly.

Automated summary

Raman spectroscopy is a crucial technique for analyzing carbon-based materials, providing unique insights into their microstructure. It allows for characterization of aspects such as orientation, layers, defects, and doping, enabling standardization and quality control. The application of Raman spectroscopy in studying graphene has aided in the analysis of carbon nanotubes and fibers. The technique can also be used to track deformation in carbon-based materials and study interfacial micromechanics in composites.