Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T12:01:37.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Impact of Background Function on High Accuracy Quantitative Rietveld Analysis (QRA): Application to NIST SRMs 676 and 656

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Robert B. Von Dreele
Affiliation:
LANSCE, MS H805, Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, NM 87545
James. P. Cline
Affiliation:
Ceramics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD 20899
Get access

Abstract

The accuracy of Quantitative Rietveid Analysis (QRA) was examined in terms of the plausibility of the set of refined parameters as well as the realization of the expected quantitative result. This route was pursued due to the two mutually exclusive characteristics that a powder exhibiting the calculated (ideal) diffraction intensity would possess; it would have infinitesimal domains to alleviate the effects of extinction but at the same time infinitesimal surface area to eliminate the volume of the disordered surface or amorphous phase. The specimens were mixtures of NIST Standard Reference Material (SRM) 640b, a silicon powder with a mean particle size of 7 pin (certified with respect to lattice parameters), and SRM 676, an alumina powder with a submicrometer crystallite size (certified for quantitative analysis). Good agreement between the particle size of SRM 640b, determined by laser scattering measurements, and its domain size, determined by using the Sabine model for extinction, were obtained with the use of improved background functions in refinements of neutron time-of-flight (TOF) powder diffraction data. These data, in conjunction with the plausibility of other refined parameters such as temperature factors, led to a credible measurement of the amorphous content of SRM 676 and a verification that TOF data can yield unbiased quantitative results. A new SRM for quantitative analysis of silicon nitride was certified with respect to the a, p and amorphous (impurity) phase content with the use of TOF diffraction and SRM 676 as the reference phase. Results from XRD data were found to be less sensitive to background function, though improvements in the Rietveid analysis of XRD data were achieved.

Type
II. Phase Analysis, Accuracy and Standards in Powder Diffraction
Copyright
Copyright © International Centre for Diffraction Data 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bish, D.L. and Howard, S.A. (1987) J. Appl. Cryst. 21, 8691.Google Scholar
Cagliotii, G., Pauletti, A. and Ricci, EP (1958) Nucl. Instrum., 3, 223226.Google Scholar
Chung, EH. (1974a) J. Appl. Cryst. 7, 519525.Google Scholar
Chung, F.H. (1974b) J. Appl. Cryst. 7, 526531.Google Scholar
Cline, J.P and Snyder, R.L. (1987) Adv. in X-ray Anal. 30, 447456.Google Scholar
Cline, J.P. (1992) Proceedings of ‘Accuracy in Powder Diffraction II,” NIST special publication 846, 6874.Google Scholar
Dollase, WA. (1986) J. Appl. Cryst. 19, 267.Google Scholar
Gills, TE. (1995) Certificate of Analysis, SRM 656, NISX Gaithersburg, Md. 20899Google Scholar
Hill, R.J. and Howard, C.J. (1987) J. Appl. Cryst, 20, 467474.Google Scholar
Kuchinski, M.A., Hubbard, C.R., and Robbins, C. (1988) NBS (NIST) Internal Report #88-3742, NIST Gaithersburg, Md. 20899.Google Scholar
Larson, A.C. and Von Dreele, R.B., (1994) Los Alamos National Laboratory Report LAUR 86-748.Google Scholar
Lennox, D.H. (1957) Anal. Chem, 29, 767.Google Scholar
Nakamura, T, Satneshima, K., Okunaga, K., Sugiura, Y., and Sato, J., (1989) Powder Diffraction, 4, 913.Google Scholar
Smith, S.T., Snyder, R.L. and Brownell, WE. (1979) Adv, in X-ray Anal. 22, 7788.Google Scholar
Thompson, E. Cox, D.E. and Hastings, J.B. (1987) J. Appl, Cryst. 20, 7983.Google Scholar
Rasberry, S.D. (1987) Certificate, SRM 640b, NIST Gaithersburg, Md. 20899.Google Scholar
Reed, WE (1992) Certificate, SRM 676, NIST Gaithersburg, Md. 20899.Google Scholar
Sabine, TM. (1985) Aust. J. Phys., 38, 507-18.Google Scholar
Von Dreele, R.B., Jorgensen, J.D. and Windsor, C.G., (1982) J. Appl. Cryst. 15, 581589.Google Scholar