Commodity savings

By controlling the quality of raw materials by X-ray diffraction, it is possible to know their mineralogy and get to a correct dosage of them. This can lead to material savings and therefore cost savings.

Some of the analyses that can be carried out for the control of raw materials are:

– Determination and quantification of crystalline phases, impurities and aefa fraction.

Determine mineral phases that can modify/alter the production process of ceramic materials

X-ray diffraction, usually combined with Rietveld’s method, is a tool that allows a better understanding of the production process of ceramic materials, as crystalline phases can be identified and quantified, and even the total amorphous material content quantified. With this, correlations can be established with parameters of the production process and with the final properties and performance of the product.

Optimize ceramic synthesis temperature

Temperature monitoring (thermodiffraction) can be carried out including the evolution of crystalline phases, expansion, crystallization, fusion or thermal decomposition. This could correctly optimize the synthesis temperature of these materials.

Optimize the synthesis of ceramic pigments. Getting higher quality pigments

Through X-ray diffraction we can know the mechanism of formation of different types of inorganic pigments (circonates, spinel, sphenas, etc.) and the crystalochemistry of the main phase. With this we can optimize your synthesis process.

Pigment series studies (evolution of the series with the addition of color modifiers)

By X-ray diffraction you can follow the evolution of the unit cell based on the number of color modifiers added and determine/understand the incorporation mechanisms (isomorph substitution, defect insertion, etc…) as well as determine solubility limits based on synthesis conditions.

Crystallite size and stress studies (microstructural analysis) can also be done and see how it affects the color gamut in these series.

There are different advanced uses that can respond to complex topics. For example for later samples, ceramics in multilayers, the layers can be studied using level incidence techniques to understand the mineralogical phases depending on the depth.