“…In these studies, the Raman spectral parameters derived from highly ordered carbon materials, mainly the widths, position, and intensities of the G (graphite) and D (defect) bands, 14 were used to investigate the biomass/char structure and its correlation to other characteristics, for example, graphene crystallite size, pore size, and surface area. However, unlike the spectra of highly ordered carbon materials such as graphite that show two clearly distinct and well-resolved peaks of D and G, 14,15 the spectra of biomass chars show much broader bands near G and D than the highly ordered carbon materials 8,[11][12][13] The overlaps between the D and G bands as well as the shoulders at the two sides of the G and D bands for the Raman spectra of biomass chars contain rich information about the structural features of biomass chars. In other words, the Raman spectra of highly disordered carbonaceous materials such as amorphous carbon or chars differ considerably from that of "ideal" polycrystalline graphite: 16,17 the presence of a wide variety of aliphatic structures and O-containing structures in biomass char means that the biomass char will be distinctly different from the well-structured carbon materials.…”