Simultaneous determination of high-temperature crystal structure and texture of synthetic porous cordierite

Abstract

The evolution of the crystal structure and crystallographic texture of porous synthetic cordierite was studied byin situhigh-temperature neutron diffraction up to 1373 K, providing the firstin situhigh-temperature texture measurement of this technologically important material. It was observed that the crystal texture slightly weakens with increasing temperature, concurrently with subtle changes in the crystal structure. These changes are in agreement with previous work, leading the authors to the conclusion that high-temperature neutron diffraction allows reliable crystallographic characterization of materials with moderate texture. It was also observed that structural changes occur at about the glass transition temperature of the cordierite glass (between 973 and 1073 K). Crystal structure refinements were conducted with and without quantitative texture analysis being part of the Rietveld refinement, and a critical comparison of the results is presented, contributing to the sparse body of literature on combined texture and crystal structure refinements.