Powder diffractometer
A powder diffractometer (from diffraction , Latin for diffraction , sometimes abbreviated as XRPD ) is a special variant of the X-ray diffractometer for structural analysis of a polycrystalline sample. A diffractogram (or diffraction diagram ) can be recorded with the device . The lattice parameters of the crystal system can be determined from the diffraction angles during X-ray diffraction and the wavelength of the X-ray radiation used. With the help of databases, it is also possible to identify and often quantify substance mixtures.
A Bragg-Brentano geometry is mostly used today , in which the diffraction angles are scanned with a movable, electronic X-ray detector.
Older procedures
The predecessors of the powder diffractometers are the Debye-Scherrer or the Guinier method, in which the detection was carried out using film strips.