Powder X-ray Diffraction Basic Course

An introductory overview of powder X-ray diffractometry covering Bragg diffraction, instrument components, detector and optics advances, and the range of material analyses possible for powders and bulk samples.

A practical guide to selecting XRD source, optics, slits, and detector settings so powder diffraction measurements deliver the right balance of intensity, resolution, and low background.

Reliable powder XRD starts with preparation: match the holder to the sample, control particle size and sample height, and set scan range, step size, and speed to capture accurate peaks.

Practical guidance for identifying crystalline phases with XRD, covering database matching, software-assisted search, data-quality pitfalls, trace-phase challenges, and why expert judgment remains essential for reliable results.

This installment explains how quanti­tative powder XRD measures phase amounts using RIR and Rietveld methods, why full-pattern fitting improves accuracy, and how amorphous content can also be estimated.

This article explains how XRD evaluates crystallite size, why Scherrer works for smaller domains, and why FP-based whole-pattern fitting gives more accurate size, distribution, and anisotropy information for larger or more complex materials.

Lattice constants reveal how crystal structures change with temperature, composition, and measurement conditions, and modern whole-pattern fitting enables more accurate, practical XRD evaluation than simple single-peak calculations.

This article explains how powder X-ray diffraction can be used to estimate crystallinity by separating crystalline peaks from the amorphous halo, with practical guidance for measurement accuracy and reproducibility.