Microstructural characterisation of battery materials using powder diffraction data: DIFFaX, FAULTS and SH-FullProf approaches

The microstructure of Li2PtO3, isostructural with Li2MnO3, and β-Ni(OH)2 is analyzed from powder diffraction data using two approaches. Firstly, the recently developed FAULTS program (a modification of the DIFFaX program to allow refinement of the diffraction pattern) is used to include different amounts and types of stacking faults in the microstructural description of the material. This approach treats size effects mostly isotropically and assigns most of the anisotropic peak broadening to stacking faults. On the other hand, the FullProf program is also used to perform Rietveld refinement with microstructural models that treat the effects of anisotropic size and hence considers that this is the main contribution to broadening. The simultaneous use of these two approaches allows choosing the most adequate model in each particular case in order to obtain an accurate description of the microstructure of the material.