TUTORIAL ON THE CONVERSION OF POWDER X-RAY DIFFRACTION FILMS TO SYNTHETIC DIGITAL DIFFRACTOGRAMS

Many laboratories have old powder diffraction films lying around that contain a great deal of useful information, but are essentially unused because they cannot easily be converted into a diffractogram giving peak position and intensity data. This tutorial will demonstrate how to convert such films into digital diffraction patterns so they can be used in programs that will perform search-match functions, peak fitting and profiling functions and line indexing functions. This same method may also be used on modern films, especially those employing a focusing monochrometer, to extract useful information from extremely small samples, or in the absence of a diffractometer.

Part 1: ACCURACY OF FILM DERIVED DATA

Part 2: OBTAINING A QUALITY IMAGE OF THE FILM

Part 3: PROCESSING THE FILM IMAGE

Part 4: GENERATING A LINE PROFILE AND SAVING THE DATA

Part 5: CONVERTING THE LINE PROFILE DATA TO A USEFUL FORMAT

            A) DELETING EXCESS RANGE AND CONVERTING INTENSITIES

            B) TRANSFORMING DATA TO FIXED STEPS

            C) CONVERTING DATA FILES AND ADDING HEADERS

Part 6: IMPORTING THE DATA INTO CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC PROGRAMS

Part 7: SOME EXAMPLES OF CONVERTED DATA

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