Raman Spectroscopy

The combination of a Raman and/or IR spectrometer with an optical microscope allows spectra of small objects to be measured with high spatial resolution (up to few micrometres). Raman and Infrared spectroscopy provides a non-destructive way of characterisation and surface analysis of a wide-ranging number of materials and systems. Both methods are a vibrational spectroscopy technique for identification and analysis of molecular species and crystalline
structures. Raman spectroscopy and IR spectroscopy provide information complementary to each other and the integration of Raman and IR modules on one microscope allows potentially to analyse the same sample area with both techniques

Why choose the University of Edinburgh School of Chemistry as a partner for your Raman Spectroscopy needs?

  • Discuss your project with our expert researchers, who can propose the best ways of acquiring vibrational spectra from your materials.
  • Use the facility yourself – get training on the Raman/FTIR facility suitable for your application; after training, you can use it with available help of expert researchers.
  • Get help with analysis of spectral data after measurement; compare the results from  infrared spectroscopy with the materials spectral library data.
The techniques can be successfully applied in areas such as materials science, nanotechnology, semiconductors, geosciences, pharmaceutical and biosciences and microplastics analysis.

 

We Can Answer Your Questions

“What is the chemical composition of this?”

Kinetic analysis of bioorthogonal reaction mechanisms using Raman microscopy

EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE

  • Thermo Fisher Scientific DXR3 Raman microscope equipped with optics for operating with 2 laser excitation lines (532 and 785 nm); default measurements can be taken in the range of 50 – 3550 cm-1 for laser 532 nm, and 50 – 3250 cm-1 for laser 785 nm; for 532 nm laser the instrument can be configured to measure fluorescence in the range up to 6000 cm-1. Raman mapping experiments are possible

  •  Olympus microscope with a set of objectives from 10x to 100x with various working distances (0.3 - 10 mm) provides visual observation of a sample up to magnification level of 1000 times using digital camera

  • Microscopes are equipped with a motorised stage (1um in X-Y or Z directions) and can perform precise positioning of the sample, depth profiling and/or mapping. Spatial resolution depends on the objective used and can be < 2 micrometres for objectives with high numerical aperture.

  • ThermoFisher Scientific RaptIR microscope is equipped with IR objective (magn. 15x) and high sensitivity MCT detector (spectral range 650 – 4000cm-1) combined with Nicolet iS50 spectrometer; it can perform measurements of small objects (up to 5um) in transmission, reflection (using IR reflective substrates) and ATR (with Ge slide-on attachment) modes.  FTIR mapping is possible.

  • Additionally, Nicolet iS50 spectrometer (equipped with r.t. DTGS detector, 400 -4000 cm-1) itself allows standard FTIR measurements in transmission, using standard 2” x 3” sample holders, and diamond ATR modes.

For more information contact chemistry.facilities@ed.ac.uk 

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