X-ray diffraction characterization of a spatially coherent crystalline nanocomposite obtained from a melt of KCl, KBr and KI salts

Crystalline bulks, obtained by the Bridgman technique from a melt that was previously prepared by mixing equal molar fractions of the salts KBr, KCl and KI were characterized by powder and single-plate X-ray diffraction. The crystalline bulks are formed by a composite material consisting of a highly textured aggregation of crystallites of two different face-centred-cubic solid solutions with corresponding unit-cell sizes of 7.020(2) and 6.456(3) Å. The relative molar fraction concentrations of these solid solutions in the composite are about 0.348 and 0.652, respectively. From these solutions, the first is identified as the binary KBr(9.7%):KI(90.3%) mixed phase and the second is discussed to be the ternary KBr (45.9%):KCl (51.1%):KI (3.0%) mixed phase. The lattices of most of the crystallites forming the composite, no matter the phase they belong to, are spatially coherent to each other within the crystalline bulk.