Metals in the PDF

The International Centre for Diffraction Data is expanding cooperation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology with respect to crystallographic data on metallic substances. While there are about 25,000 experimental metal and alloy patterns in the Powder Diffraction File (PDF), there are several thousand alloys not represented in either the PDF or the NIST Crystal Data File for which only single crystal data are available. Powder patterns will be calculated on the basis of their data to fill the gaps in the PDF. Similar agreements are already in place with the CCDC that maintains the Cambridge Structure Database and FIZ that maintains the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database. The size of the PDF has more than doubled in the past 3 years, as a result of these agreements, and with expansion of the ICDD Grant-in-Aid program.