European Powder Diffraction 5

Book excerpt: Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters CPCI-S (WoS). The EPDIC-5 Proceedings present the latest papers in this successful series of European Conferences on Powder Diffraction. They demonstrate the evergrowing interest from materials scientists, physicists, chemists, geologists - both industrial and academic- all having a direct interest in the practical application of this powerful and non-destructive method of analysis. Part 1 comprises some 75 contributions, with sections on Methodological Developments, Development of Instruments and Techniques, Software, Synchrotron and Neutron Diffraction describing the latest ideas in these fields. Subjects such as Microstructure of Materials, Texture, Quantitative Phase Analysis and Crystal Structure Determination are also addressed; as in previous editions of these conference proceedings. An important step forward in materials analysis is now occurring: scientists and engineers are becoming more and more conscious of the fact that, by using these techniques, it is possible to obtain quantitative information from the same set of measurements, of material characteristics, that determine material properties. This advance has been made possible thanks to recent instrumental developments, such as the X-ray lens -a bundle of glass capillaries- and single or double X-ray mirrors. A very useful tool, that is extensively applied -as described in a sequence of some 15 contributions-, is the in-situ (i.e. time resolved) powder diffraction technique which has resulted from the ample availability of position sensitive detectors.