For example, the clay minerals are often less than 1 micron in size and cannot be positively identified with a chemical analysis or by microscopy. XRD methods are used for their identification. But, in both these cases, X-ray diffraction can be used to identify and quantify the relative amounts of these minerals. This makes an accurate and flexible system for x-ray diffraction by the powder method. Scans are made and stored digitally.
Several programs are available for the analysis of the digitized patterns.
Identification of pipeline scales Expansion characteristics of smectite clays used as fillers in polymer based composites. Return to Rice Univ.