Separating overlapped peaks is a part of many x-ray diffraction analyses, for example, polymer crystallinity. Natta [1] defined a method for polypropylene in 1957. His method was computerized at the Hercules Research Center in 1960 with an automatic “curve follower” which punched paper tape for the computer. A later method deviated fTom Natta's method by approximating the amorphous curve with a fixed shape and a height chosen to best fit the diffraction data from 2θ = 7.5 through 10. degrees. Neither of these methods worked on “smectic” polymer samples, i.e., composed of very small crystallites. Also, a different computer program was used for each different polymer, so a general purpose computer program was developed using a peak profile method. This method has been used en polymer mixtures and copolymers of ethylene, propylene, and butene; and on cellulose, modified cellulose, and catalysts. The selection of a profile function is discussed in the next section. In later sections, the background, the fitting procedure, and computer input and output are discussed.
