Line Broadening Studies on Highly Defective TiO2 Produced by High Pressure Shock Loading

Abstract

Enhanced solid state reactivity of materials both during and after shock compression has been attributed to the introduction of large numbers of defects into the crystalline lattices and to reduction in the particle and crystallite size of powders [1]. In particular, orders of magnitude increases in the catalytic activity has been observed In shock-modified TiO2 [2]. Line broadening of x-ray diffraction profiles provides a means to determine the coherent crystallite size and the residual lattice strain resulting from defect concentrations. The present study on shock-loaded rutile is a detailed Investigation of the influence of shock loading on residual lattice strain and coherent crystallite size. Annealing of shock-modified rutile powders is also studied.