Powder X-Ray Structure Refinement Applying a Theory for Particle Statistics

A new method for analysis of powder diffraction intensity data recently developed by the author has been modified to include the effects of possible statistical errors in the goniometer angle 2Θ. The analytical method is based on the maximum-likelihood estimation. Structure parameters refined by the method for fluorapatite Ca5(PO4)3F, anglesite PbSO4 and barite BaSO4 have become closer to those obtained by single-crystal structure analyses than the results obtained by applications of a conventional Rietveld refinement to the same powder diffraction data, similarly to the previous analyses, where the errors in 2Θ are not included. The statistical errors about 2Θ are estimated at Δ2Θ = 0.0030º, 0.00099º and 0.0036º from the powder diffraction data sets of fluoroapatite, anglesite and barite, respectively.