Rietveld refinement of LaB6: data from µXRD

Abstract

The Rietveld method of crystal structure refinement was an important breakthrough, allowing crystal structural information to be obtained from powder diffraction data. One remaining challenge is to collect Rietveld-quality data for polycrystalline mineralsin situ, using laboratory-based micro X-ray diffraction (µXRD) techniques. Here a new data collection method is presented, called `multiframes', which produces high-quality data, suitable for Rietveld refinement, using the Bruker D8 DISCOVER micro X-ray diffractometer. 91 frames of two-dimensional X-ray diffraction data were collected for powdered NIST SRM 660 LaB6standard material, using a general area-detector diffraction system (GADDS), at intervals of 0.8° 2θ. For each frame, only the central 1° 2θ was integrated and merged to produce a diffraction profile from 17 to 90° 2θ. Rietveld refinement of this data usingTOPAS2gave a unit-cell parameter (ao) and atomic position of boron (x) for LaB6of 4.1549 (1) Å and 0.1991 (9), respectively (Rwp= 4.26,RBragg= 3.21). The corresponding La—B bond length was calculated to be 3.0522 Å. These parameters are in good agreement with the literature values for LaB6. These encouraging results suggest that Rietveld-quality micro X-ray diffraction data can be collected from the Bruker D8 DISCOVER diffractometer, provided that the GADDS detector is stepped in small increments, for each frame only the central 1° 2θ is integrated at constant arc length, and counting time is sufficient to yield adequate intensity (∼10 000 counts).