COMPARISON OF LABORATORY-BASED X-RAY MICRODIFFRACTION AND ELECTRON BACKSCATTER DIFFRACTION FOR PHASE IDENTIFICATION

X-ray microdiffraction and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) have been compared by analysis of a number of materials, including nanocrystalline particles, thin films, and plasmasprayed (Zr,Y)O2-x. EBSD is capable of phase identification of single particles down to approximately 100 nm in size, and x-ray microdiffraction is capable of phase identification of powders down to tenths of nanograms in mass. EBSD is clearly the better technique for the identification of individual small particles, but cannot be used when all the particles (crystallites) are less than 100 nm in size. X-ray microdiffraction has better precision in the determination of lattice constants, which is important in the case of plasma-sprayed ( Zr,Y)O2-x.