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Quality control in industrial processes with phase identification

Background

Ensuring quality control can be a daunting task in industrial processes. The key to a quality product is to maintain that quality throughout the entire process and having the appropriate materials is essential to this accomplishment. The wrong materials could alter the properties of the desired product. It could even change the product and everyone would certainly want the finished product to be able to function with its desired task. Observe the white powder in Figure 1. If one had ordered Al₂O₃ and observed this clean looking white powder; perhaps no questions would be asked.

white powder miniflex

Figure 1: White powder

Investigation

Quality control of incoming products and reagents is easy with the MiniFlex. Observe the diffractogram overlays of Al₂O₃ in Figure 2. In a matter of minutes one can determine if they have the right materials or not. The pattern in blue is a typical diffractogram of corundum. The pattern in black is corundum that has been contaminated with talc. Provided a reference pattern, one may not require phase identification. However, if you are interested in what the contaminate may be, phase identification is required. If you do, make sure you collect all the data you need. Expecting the first corundum peak around 25.58° 2θ could cost you valuable information.

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