Determination of particle distribution in supported metal catalysts by small-angle scattering

A method of processing X-ray small-angle data for a three-phase system, based on the hypothesis formulated by Goodisman, Brumberger & Cupelo [J. Appl. Cryst. (1981), 14, 305-308] has been extended to the determination of the polydispersity of one phase. For supported metal catalysts, the characterization of the metal phase is obtained from its correlation function evaluated from a balanced subtraction between those of the catalyst and of the support, measured in two separate experiments. A fairly good agreement with electron microscopy data is obtained.