The shell thickness of a BaTiO3 ceramic with a core–shell structure has been measured by means of synchrotron X‐ray diffraction (XRD). BaTiO3 ceramic is known from transmission electron microscope (TEM)/energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDS) observations to have an inhomogeneous microstructure with cores of a pure BaTiO3 and shells doped with additives. It is also known, from XRD observations, that the BaTiO3 cores have a tetragonal lattice structure and the shells are pseudocubic. We have estimated the shell thickness d from the full‐width at half‐maximum (FWHM) of the cubic (400)c peak, using Scherrer's equation. The shell thickness dcal was also evaluated from the volume fraction of tetragonal BaTiO3 using a spherical core–shell model. The two values thus determined agree well, confirming that the BaTiO3 ceramic specimens have a core–shell structure. Our results show that synchrotron XRD is a simple and effective tool for quantitative analysis of the core–shell structure. It enables us to understand quantitatively the relationship between the microstructure and the dielectric properties of BaTiO3 ceramics.
The crystallinity of multicomponent glass-ceramic mixtures has been analyzed via the Rietveld method, using powder X-ray diffractometry data. The Rietveld technique uses an internal standard but requires no calibration data to determine the total amorphous phase content of a mixture. This method of analyzing the crystallinity of synthetic mixtures gives high-precision results, with an error of generally less than ±3.0%, for several glass-ceramics.
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