Advantage of Automation to Significantly Reduce Measurement Time for PDF Analysis
The pair distribution function (PDF) is a key tool for understanding the local structure of a material. However, acquiring data for PDF analysis on laboratory X-ray diffractometers is timeconsuming, often requiring several hours to days. XRDynamic 500, an automated multipurpose powder X-ray diffractometer, enables high-quality PDF measurements in a significantly shorter timeframe.
Introduction
Pair distribution function (PDF) analysis is a method to study the local structure of materials, whether they are crystalline, amorphous, or liquid. Traditionally, these measurements are performed at synchrotron facilities due to their faster acquisition times. Labora-tory systems can also perform such measurements, but the time required is considerably longer, ranging from several hours to days, to achieve the data for high-quality PDF analysis.
Simon Billinge’s group demonstrated that ~25.5 hours of measurement on a standard XRD system is need-ed to achieve comparable statistics to synchrotron facilities. However, using automated Soller slit switch-ing, implemented in Anton Paar’s XRDynamic 500, this time can be significantly reduced to 8 hours. In these measurements, Soller slits are applied in the low 2θ region (up to 80°) for better peak resolution and removed in the high 2θ region (80° to 160°) for improved intensity (1).
The question arises: Do we always need synchrotron-level data quality? If not, what is a reasonable scan time to collect data for good-quality PDF? This application report demonstrates that scan times can be reduced to as little as one hour to obtain optimal PDF data on XRDynamic 500.
References:
1. T. Schertenleib et al., Protocols for Obtaining Reliable PDFs from Laboratory x-ray Sources Using PDFgetX3, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2406.18177
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