Inorganic compounds and minerals studied using X-ray diffraction

X-ray diffraction frorn the solid state is:a fundarnental technique for the characterizatien of synthetic and natura l materials. Since the diseovery of Bragg-rype X-ray diffraction from periodie crystal lattices, the technique has proven an.essential tool for (1) the identifiearion of erystaÌlineeompounds, (2) the quantitàtive analysis of polyphasie mixrures, (3)' the study of the long-range atomic structure of crystals, including detailed charge density studies, and (4) the physical analysis of crystalline aggregates, including orientation texture, crystallite size disnibution, and lattice microstrain effecrs. Such routine applications have developed during the first half of the 20th century into standard analysis procedures, and during the last decades they became so widely urilized that data afe now available for mosr known inorganic compounds and mineraIs, to the extent that electronic databases are now accessible for automatic identification and rapid rerrieval of crystallographic and struetural information of crystalline substances. The focus of the modern crystaUogra phie research on inorganic solids is the inrerpreration of the physieal and chemical properties of materials in terrns of their ideal or defective atomie .structure, and the transfer of rhe acguiredcrystal chemicai knowledge to the engineering of solid-srare cornpounds with novel technological properties. The years since the mid 1980s have also witnessed the developrnent of dedicated second and third generation synchrotron radiation sources in the .region of hard X-rays. The availability of brilliant, polarized and collimated synchrotron radiation beams with a wavelengrh rhat is tunabie aver a wide spectral range has made a number of interesting advances possible in rnaterials charàcrerization. State-of-the-arr irrvestigations of inerganic compounds and minerals by synchrotron Xvray.diffraction include: in situ dynamic diffraction of kinetie processes and phase transformations, struetural -characterization of .compounds at ultrahigh pressures and use ef resorrant scattering effecrs , for element-selective structuralanalysis.