Development of materials science by Ab initio powder diffraction analysis

Crystal structure is most important information to understand properties and behavior of target materials. Technique to analyze unknown crystal structures from powder diffraction data (ab initio powder diffraction analysis) enables us to reveal crystal structures of target materials even we cannot obtain a single crystal. In the present article, three examples are introduced to show the power of this technique in the field of materials sciences. The first example is dehydration/hydration of the pharmaceutically relevant material erythrocycin A. In this example, crystal structures of two anhydrous phases were determined from synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction data and their different dehydration/hydration properties were understood from the crystal structures. In the second example, a crystal structure of a three dimensional metal-organic-framework prepared by a mechanochemical reaction was determined from laboratory X-ray powder diffraction data and the reaction scheme has been revealed. In the third example, a crystal structure of a novel oxide-ion conductor of a new structure family was determined from synchrotron X-ray and neutron powder diffraction data which gave an important information to understand the mechanism of the oxide-ion conduction. (author)