Abstract

X-ray powder diffraction is a well-established technique to analyse structural and microstructural properties of materials. The possibility to record in-situ powder diffraction data allows studying changes within the structure and microstructure of a sample that occur in dependence on the applied external conditions (e.g. temperature, pressure). In the present thesis, in-situ X-ray powder diffraction was used to study structural and microstructural changes of different samples occurring at elevated temperature or upon UV illumination. Several structural phase transitions were studied using the approach of parametric Rietveld refinement. In parametric Rietveld refinement a set of powder diffraction pattern is refined simultaneously, constraining the evolution of some parameters using mathematical models, so that only the variables of the model need to be refined. In order to model and analyse the behaviour of structural parameters, Landau theory and its corresponding equations were used, owing to the fact that structural parameters (e.g. lattice strain, changes in atomic positions or occupancy) comprise an order parameter as defined in Landau theory. For description of the crystal structure of materials, several different approaches were tested, e.g. atomic coordinates, symmetry modes, rigid body rotations or rigid body symmetry modes. The dependence of preparation conditions on the properties of nanomaterials and their growth kinetics was studied using Whole Powder Pattern Modelling. This method allows modelling X-ray powder diffraction pattern using the microstructure of the sample without the use of arbitrary profile functions. The Fourier transforms of frequently observed effects as crystallite shape and size distribution or density of various defects, like dislocations and stacking faults, are utilised in order to get the resulting diffraction profile. Two different systems with industrial application, CeO2 and Cu2ZnSnS4, which were produced using a sol-gel approach, were investigated.