Application of the Rietveld method to quantitative analysis of impurities in synthetic diamond powder

Synthetic diamonds are an important class of industrial material. During synthesis impurities may get introduced into diamond. Identification and quantification of impurities is important as they affect the properties and suitability of the diamonds for their application. Impurities in an industrial synthetic diamond powder sample were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and also by chemical methods. X-ray diffraction pattern showed diamond as the major phase and α-iron as a minor phase. Quantitative analysis of crystalline phases was done by performing Rietveld refinement of the XRD profile. Chemical analysis showed the presence of several other impurities as well, though in small amounts. It was considered that the impurities other than iron were in amorphous form and an estimate of the amorphous content was made on this basis. Relative phase composition of diamond and iron as estimated by XRD were corrected for the amorphous content to obtain absolute phase composition.