X-ray diffraction analysis of the effect of annealing temperature on the microstructure of magnesium oxide nanopowder

In this study, nanocrystalline MgO powders were prepared using the sol-gel method and annealed in air over a temperature range of [400-700] degrees C. Various microstructural characteristics were determined using three different X-ray diffraction analysis approaches, i.e., modified Williamson-Hall, modified Warren-Averbach, and variance methods. The transmission electron microscopy micrographs were used to measure the size distributions of the MgO samples. The results obtained using the three different methods were in good agreement. At all temperatures, the main source of dislocation was edge type but as the annealing temperature increased, the crystallite size and dislocation density increased and decreased, respectively, thereby indicating that the crystal quality of the nanopowders was improved. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.