Resonance Raman spectroscopy as a probe of the crystallite size of MoS2 nanoparticles

Irregularly shaped and inorganic fullerene-like MoS2 compounds were characterized by Resonance Raman spectroscopy using an exciting line at 633 nm. It was shown that the relative intensity of the longitudinal acoustic mode at 226 cm−1 and its overtone strongly depends on the MoS2 crystallite size but not on the size of the particles made of agglomerated crystallites. This technique appeared as a promising probe to characterize in situ very small crystallites that are not observed by XRD.