The Mineral Synthesis Lab complex is equipped with a very diverse suite of spectroscopic and scattering instruments to determine material chemical composition, structure, surface area and grain size of both synthetic and natural samples.

The X-Ray Powder Diffraction Lab is equipped with a Panalytical Empyrean X-Ray Diffractometer, which includes two different types of tubes: a cobalt-tube and a copper-tube. It also includes a PIXcel 1 Detector, which is capable of very fast measuring, a sample-changer with a 15-round magazine, and fixed divergence slit optics with different apertures from 1/16° – 2°.

An X-Ray Diffraction analysis is a method in which a beam of X-Rays is usually directed at a fine powder of randomly oriented grains of crystalline substances. The X-Rays are scattered in directions that depend on the crystal structure of the sample and the resulting X-Ray diffraction pattern can uniquely identify the material. The method is used to identify individual minerals in randomly oriented bulk rock powder samples (grain sizes < 62 μm for qualitative analysis, < 10 μm for quantitative …

The determination of angles and intensities produced by diffraction of X-Ray radiation by mineral lattices provides information, which is characteristic for their crystalline structures. X-Ray powder diffraction is used by for identification, quantitative phase analysis and structure refinement of phases in synthesized powders. Most diffraction data is processed by the Rietveld method using the GSAS software package.
The lab includes two STOE Stadi P diffractometer equipped with a curved …

X-Ray Powder diffraction is a non-destructive technique for phase- and Rietveld analysis of crystalline materials. It is used for the determination of detailed phase composition, quantitative Rietveld analysis, nanocrystallite-sizes, lattice parameters, amorphous content, and 1d-Mappings. The lab is equipped with an Empyrean powder X-Ray diffractometer (Panalytical), working in reflection (Bragg-Brentano) or transmission theta-theta geometry. It is equipped with a Cu-tube, a fast PIXcel 1d …