Assessment of the use of Raman spectroscopy for the determination of amphibole asbestos

Raman spectroscopy was assessed for its ability to rapidly identify asbestos phases by submitting the amphiboles anthophyllite, amosite, crocidolite and tremolite to spectroscopic analysis. All the phases were characterized by using XRD, SEM, TEM (CTEM, SAED), AEM and EDS techniques. This study demonstrates that accurate identification of the mineralogical phase can be attained by analysing the position in the Raman spectrum of the bands corresponding to the symmetric stretching modes (v_s) and to the antisymmetric stretching modes (V_as) of the different Si-O linkages. Raman spectroscopy thus proves to be an effective technique for rapidly distinguishing the different fibrous minerals examined.