Inter-particle structural fluctuation of Prussian blue analogue as investigated by X-ray microbeam diffraction

Abstract

The X-ray microbeam diffraction from each particle leads to a deeper structural characterization, i.e. inter-particle structural fluctuation, of powdery compound. Here, we performed X-ray microbeam diffractions of Na x Co1−z Ni z [Fe(CN)6] y at BL40XU beamline of SPring-8. In the whole region of z, the inter-particle structural fluctuation is negligible in the as-grown powder. We found that the average () of the spacing (d 012) of the (012) plane decreases with X-ray irradiation time (t). The standard deviation (σ) of d 012 steeply increases with t from 0.006 Å at t = 1 s to 0.031 Å at t = 60 s, indicating that inter-particle structural fluctuation is induced by the X-ray irradiation.