Raman spectroscopy of graphene and carbon nanotubes

TLDR

Graphene and carbon nanotubes are sp2 carbon nanostructures of major interest because of their simplicity, small size, and the novel science they enable, with nanoribbons differing from nanotubes by possessing edges rather than only end terminations. This review surveys the use of Raman spectroscopy to study graphene and carbon nanotubes, emphasizing its power as a probe and characterization tool for sp2 carbon materials, particularly in photophysics. The authors compare graphene, carbon nanotubes, graphite, and carbon nanoribbons, applying Raman spectroscopy to probe their structural and photophysical characteristics.

Abstract

This paper reviews progress that has been made in the use of Raman spectroscopy to study graphene and carbon nanotubes. These are two nanostructured forms of sp2 carbon materials that are of major current interest. These nanostructured materials have attracted particular attention because of their simplicity, small physical size and the exciting new science they have introduced. This review focuses on each of these materials systems individually and comparatively as prototype examples of nanostructured materials. In particular, this paper discusses the power of Raman spectroscopy as a probe and a characterization tool for sp2 carbon materials, with particular emphasis given to the field of photophysics. Some coverage is also given to the close relatives of these sp2 carbon materials, namely graphite, a three-dimensional (3D) material based on the AB stacking of individual graphene layers, and carbon nanoribbons, which are one-dimensional (1D) planar structures, where the width of the ribbon is on the nanometer length scale. Carbon nanoribbons differ from carbon nanotubes is that nanoribbons have edges, whereas nanotubes have terminations only at their two ends.