Assessment of correction procedures for reduction of Raman spectra

Recently it has become apparent that for quantitative studies the I(ω) Raman spectrum measured directly from the spectrometer must be corrected for temperature and frequency factors to give a reduced Raman spectrum, R(ω), which is directly proportional to the intrinsic molar scattering factor. Although generally applicable, the R(ω) spectrum finds its greatest application in the low‐frequency region of hydrogen‐bonded and simple molecular liquids and solids. In this paper the general applicability of the R(ω) format is discussed with respect to the low‐frequency spectra observed for simple molecular and more complicated hydrogen‐bonded liquids and solids. Examples are chosen from S8(s), H2O(I), SO2(g) and SO2(I) and CH3CN(I). Further arguments are presented to stress the need to use temperature‐ and frequency‐corrected band shapes for Raman component bands at non‐zero frequency when attempting to deconvolute the Rayleigh band at zero frequency into component sub‐bands.