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.