In industrial and commercial use, ceramic and porcelain tiles are used in a variety of applications, most of them for floor, wall or ceiling coverings, and they also have a high-performance potential. However, research in this area has not received much attention so far, so I decided to try to carry out a qualitative and quantitative phase analysis using X-ray powder diffraction.
I analysed 18 different samples of porcelain and ceramic tiles. As the declarations did not indicate the material or elemental composition, I first compared the samples with each other and then with a collection of powder images of the standards using Crystallographica Search-Match. In this way, I determined which crystalline phases were present in each sample. Quartz was present in all samples, and the composition of the porcelain tiles was much more similar than that of the ceramic tiles. I was not able to identify some of the substances, that were present in very small quantities, as I could not confirm their presence with certainty on the basis of only a few small peaks.
Using Topas, I also determined the mass fractions of the crystalline phases present using the Rietveld method. Six samples were analysed using scanning electron microscope, with which elemental analysis was also conducted. Elemental analysis showed the same elements as determined by X-ray powder diffraction, but also some elements present in quantities below its detection limit.
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