Correction for preferred orientation of plate-like particles in diffractometric powder analysis

A major problem of quantitative powder diffraction analysis is the tendency of many samples to be preferentially oriented. The approach proposed here is to work with easily prepared, preferentially oriented fiat samples, whose orientation can be characterized in quantitative terms. Once the orientation is known, the observed intensities may be corrected for the effects of orientation. Although the approach is general, correction factors are developed and experimental results are presented only for the most common mode of preferred orientation, as exhibited by plate-like particles.