Standard Data for the Identification of Phases By X-Ray Diffraction

The identification of crystalline phases by x-ray diffraction, either by powder or single crystal techniques requires a dependable body of reference data. It is not only necessary to have data on each phase which are accurate and complete, it also is desirable to have data on as wide a range of compounds as possible, and to have the data organized in such a manner as to be readily usable. The outstanding compilations which approach these goals are the Powder Diffraction File and Crystal Data.The Powder Diffraction File, published by the Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards has data covering about 22,500 phases, both organic and inorganic. These data are of various degrees of accuracy as is indicated by symbols. The File is continuously being improved by the addition of evaluated data from the general literature and by data produced by supporting projects, the principal one being the Joint Committee Associateship at the National Bureau of Standards.To be noted in the File with a star, and to be truly considered standard data a powder pattern must be complete in the sense of including all reflections above the minimum “d” spacing covered, both weak lines and those with large “d” spacings. Since the best test of a pattern is its own internal consistency, the reflections must all have hkl's assigned and must show a good agreement between the spacings observed and those calculated from a refined cell, and they must be consistent with the known space group. This agreement can be best obtained by the use of an internal standard and a computer program. The intensities should be measured by a method which minimizes the effect of crystal orientation.The PDF is provided with search procedure manuals arranged on a scheme of the strongest lines to help in locating data matching that from an unknovm. A computer program for rapid searching is available. A recent development is the inclusion of a “reference intensity” to aid in estimating the quantitative analysis of mixtures.Crystal Data is a compilation now in the third edition made at the National Bureau of Standards and published by the Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards. It contains data on the unit cell parameters of over 24,000 phases. These data are arranged by crystal system and axial ratios to simplify identification of phases from unit cell data obtained from Single crystal cameras.Both of these large compilations are also important reference sources for crystallographic information giving structural information and literature references.