CHARACTERIZATION OF NANOFIBERS FOR TISSUE ENGINEERING: CHEMICAL MAPPING BY CONFOCAL RAMAN MICROSCOPY

As a method of nanofiber characterization, Raman spectroscopy typically has been used in combination with imaging by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) [12-19], transmission electron microscopy (TEM) [13, 16, 20-23], x-ray diffraction (XRD) [13] or atomic force microscopy (AFM) [9]. Such studies either rely on sample homogeneity when the spectral signature is examined [12-17], or use the non-chemical properties of different fiber components, such as density [23] or surface roughness [9], to determine their spatial distribution.