ROUTINE QUALITATIVE IDENTIFICATION OF CRYSTALLINE POWDERS
The routine application of powder diffraction techniques for the identification of polycrystalline materials dated
back to 1938 when the pioneering work of the Dow Chemical Company, was published. The simplicity and
advantage of the powder diffraction method for chemical analysis were pointed out which emphasized that:
a) the powder diffraction pattern is a characteristic of the substance,
b) each substance in a mixture produces its pattern independently of the others,
c) it tells the state of chemical combination of the elements in the material,
d) only a minute amount of sample is required;
e) the method is capable of developing a quantitative analysis.....
