The paper describes a stepping motor unit which can replace the mechanical connection between a goniometric circle (ϑ or 2ϑ) and the rotatory movement of the Automatic Divergence Slit attachment.

Extensive analyses of low-temperature powder x-ray diffraction data for spinel LiMn2O4 (Fd3¯m at room temperature) make it clear that two structural phase transitions occur: first around 285 K from cubic to orthorhombic, second around 65 K from orthorhombic to tetragonal. At temperatures under 285 K, superlattice peaks appear in the diffraction pattern that were successfully indexed by tripling the a and b axes of the spinel unit cell. At 250 K, the unit cell is face-centered orthorhombic, Fddd, F2dd, or Fd2d, with a=24.855(1), b=24.755(2), c=8.2014(3) Å, V=5046.1(4) Å3, Dx=4.284 g/cm3, Z=72. The unit cell at 30 K was confirmed to be body-centered tetragonal I41/amd or I41/a, with a=17.5176(3), c=8.1961(2) Å, V=2515.1(1) Å3, Dx=4.298 g/cm3, Z=36.

An improved deconvolution theory is presented for the resolution enhancement in powder diffraction spectra. In powder patterns, diffracted intensity, which is conceptually located at a single 2θ position, is actually distributed over a range of 2θ because of instrumental factors, crystal defects, beam penetration, and sample flatness. The location of the peak is usually taken as the peak maximum or the peak centroid. However, when interpreting complex spectra these approaches to locating peaks are not straightforward and deconvolution can be a useful tool. The method presented herein enhances resolution without altering peak area or peak position. Comparisons are made with results of other methods, with emphasis on deconvoluting spectra that contain random error. The discussion includes treatment of discrete data and analysis of the properties of the solution.

The crystal structure of the new ternary phase CuSnTi is determined by full profile Rietveld analysis of the powder diffractogram. 104 reflections were refined to a final RBragg value of 5.60%. CuSnTi crystallizes with the spacegroup P63/mmc and is isostructural to InNi2. The lattice parameters are a=0.439 555(5) nm and c=0.601 505(9) nm.

A new phase in the system BaO-MnO-SiO2 obtained by a pyrosynthetic method has been investigated using selected area electron diffraction (SAED), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and X-ray powder diffraction. The lattice parameters and a possible space group of the phase with a general composition BaMnSiO4 were determined as follows: a=5.370(2), b=18.447(7), c=8.498(5) Å, Z=8, Space Group Pmc21.

The combustion synthesis of the common ferroelectric material, BaTiO3, was developed using the stoichiometry: BaO2+0.2 Ti+0.8 TiO2→BaTiO3+0.3 O2. An adiabatic temperature, Tad, of the reaction was calculated from known thermodynamic data to be 1917 °C. Real time chemical changes in the formation of BaTiO3 during the reaction have been monitored using time-resolved X-ray diffraction with synchrotron radiation as the X-ray source. A time resolution of 250 ms was achieved. The combustion synthesis of BaTiO3 was followed by observing the intensities of reactant and product Bragg diffraction peaks in order to qualitatively identify the phases present. Because BaTiO3 forms initially as a cubic phase, X-ray diffraction of the product was monitored for a period of 20 min after the reaction to observe the phase transformation to the tetragonal form. This transformation is evident in these post-reaction scans as the cubic 110 and 220 peaks are split to the tetragonal 101/110 and 202/220 ones, respectively.

2,4-dichloro-5-nitrobenzoic acid (C7H3NO4Cl2) has been investigated by means of X-ray powder diffraction. The title compound is monoclinic with unit-cell parameters a=13.761 (2), b=8.435 (1), c=7.684 (1) Å, β=99.85 (1)°, V=878.5 (1) Å3, Z=4, Dx=1.772 g/cm3, space group P21/a (14).

Yttrium oxalate dihydrate, Y2(C2O4)3.2H2O, has been investigated by means of X-ray powder diffraction. Unit cell dimensions were determined by an indexing program based on the variation of parameters by successive dichotomies. The diffractometer data were collected with strictly monochromatic radiation. A monoclinic cell was found: a=9.3811(8)Å, b=11.6385(15)Å, c=5.9726(7)Å, β=96.079(8)°, which is characterized by the figures of merit M20=87 and F30=112 (0.0065,41). A preliminary analysis of the anisotropic line broadening has revealed some microstructural properties. It is shown that line broadening is mainly due to a micro-strain effect.

Powder X-ray diffraction data are reported for semimagnetic semiconductor Hg0.89Fe0.11S and Hg0.98Co0.02S crystals grown by the Bridgman method and for Hg0.80Mn0.20S crystal synthesized by a solid-state reaction method. The crystals have the sphalerite structure of metacinnabar (sphalerite-type high-temperature polymorph of HgS, space group F4¯3m). Phase analysis does not show any trace of other phases. The lattice parameters of the studied samples are a=5.803 20(5) Å, 5.8063(1) Å and 5.839 80(6) Å, respectively. The calculated density is reported.

A method of analysis for X-ray diffractometry is proposed for determining the number and the concentrations of phases in a series of samples of the same multiphase system. This method can be used when n samples containing N phases, where N<n, with different concentrations are given or prepared from a given sample.

The method of principal component analysis was applied to the determination of the number of individual phases in multiphase mixtures. A quantification method using the intensity ratio to an arbitrary chosen standard mixture, which is also one of the mixtures to be analyzed, is proposed.

In this study, we examined the validity of this method for X-ray diffractograms of two and three component systems. It is shown that the values determined by the present method are in good agreement with the prepared concentrations of the samples.

DISVAR93 is a collection of programs devised to process XRPD patterns with the aim of determining the parameters of systematic instrumentation and sample effects. These effects have an influence on data uncertainty and also accuracy of the adopted models describing diffraction phenomena. Such modeling is carried out through the mathematical X-ray powder-diffraction theory, while parameter optimization is achieved by using the additive property of X2 and constraining the models to converge simultaneously to the same minimum in a restrained Hilbert's space. The package has been designed to allow both user interaction as well as automatic linking of programs managed by one main menu and offer several options to satisfy individual user requirements.

An X-ray diffraction peak-broadening analysis of four oxides is described: La2CuO4 and La1.85M0.15CuO4 (M = Ca,Ba,Sr) high-Tc superconductors. The diffraction line profiles were fitted with a convolution of specimen and instrumental functions, and the specimen peakbroadening angular dependence was analyzed with the Warren-Averbach method. It was found that microstrains and incoherently diffracting domains are highly anisotropic. In the superconductors, stacking-fault probability increases with increasing Tc; microstrain decreases. In La2CuO4, different broadening of (h00) and (0k0) reflections is not caused by stacking faults; it might arise from lower crystallographic symmetry.