Crystalline structure refinements of a series of catalytic materials with the Rietveld technique

We show some applications of the refinement of crystalline structures with the Rietveld technique in material science and catalysis. The refinement provides information concerning the lattice cell parameters, structural distortion effect, phase concentration, average crystallite size, atomic occupancies and atomic defects. The generation mechanism of structural defects and their roles in the decomposition of isopropanol over sol-gel alumina and magnesia catalysts are also briefly discussed.