Publication Date:
2017-10-28
Description:
A novel X-ray diffraction based method is presented, capable of determining volume-based crystal size distribution (CSD) of polycrystalline materials and crystalline powders with unprecedented sampling statistics; the method is named fast x-ray diffraction crystal size distribution analysis (FXD-CSD). FXD-CSD can be performed with standard laboratory X-ray diffractometers equipped with a position sensitive detector and uses a software package written in Python for the data analysis. FXD-CSD is a destruction-free and generally applicable method to establish CSDs of polycrystalline materials as well as powders for sizes well below 1μm up to about 100 μm; it even allows for studies of samples enclosed in complex environments e.g. for in-situ measurements in a furnace or in a pressure cell. To show the capability of the method the microstructural evolution of four alumina substrates with different time-spans of sintering (4h, 8h, 16h, and 24h @ 1600°C) is investigated via FXD-CSD and SEM imaging. The corresponding CSDs and average grain sizes are determined, results obtained by FXD-CSD and the line-intersection methods are compared and clear evidence for the presence of abnormal grain growth (AGG) during sintering is shown. From three tested probability density functions (PDF) describing the CSDs a log-normal PDF fits best to the volume based CSDs; the method provides size distributions with unprecedented precision opening the way to a systematic and meaningful comparison between theoretically predicted and observed CSDs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Print ISSN:
0002-7820
Electronic ISSN:
1551-2916
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
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