Electrochemical growth of metallic zinc and its crystallographic study using Rietveld

Abstract

We have used a simple electrochemical method of synthesizing metallic zinc. X-ray diffraction was carried out for detailed crystallographic study. We carried out Rietveld analysis for comparing the observed diffraction data with that for ideal structure. The unit cell was found to be wurtzite with lattice parameters a=b=2.660183 Å and c=4.934607. Å as calculated from the Rietveld analysis. The crystallite size and strain were also calculated from Scherrer and Williamson-Hall method. The results suggest the existence of small microstrain in the crystal. The dislocation density is an important parameter in determining the crystalline quality of a crystal and was also estimated from the XRD pattern. The other parameters like degree of orientation, d-values and figure of merit were also calculated from the diffraction pattern to understand the detailed crystallographic properties.