Determination of phases of $\alpha $-Fe$_{2}$O$_{3}$:SiO$_{2}$ compound by the rietveld refinement

Abstract

We use a variation of the Rietveld refinement method to calculate the amorphous content of composites formed by a silica xerogel amorphous matrix and iron particles embedded into. In order to apply the Rietveld refinement to amorphous structures an initial crystalline model is assumed with the same composition as the material to be modelled. In this work we try to refine the structure of compounds using the program MAUD. It is shown how this program can be used to determine the amorphous and crystalline fractions in composites consisting of an amorphous matrix and incorporated iron oxide particles. The analysed compounds underwent different thermal treatments.