Characterization of unordered carbon using Warren–Bodenstein’s equation Original Research Article

A new method is presented for characterizing the microstructure of unordered carbon, in which the observed X-ray diffraction pattern is assumed to be the superposition of the patterns of component crystallites of differing heights Lc and widths La but fixed interlayer spacing d002, calculated using Warren–Bodenstein’s equation. The weights of the components are obtained from a least squares analysis and used to calculate mean values 〈La〉 and 〈Lc〉. Results obtained from analysis of X-ray measurements of mesocarbon microbeads heat-treated in the range 700 to 1400°C are compared with those obtained from analyses by Diamond’s method for single layer plane distributions and Hirsch’s method for layer plane distributions.