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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
Sixty-five years ago Hull first described X-ray powder diffraction as a means of phase identification, and 45 years ago Hannawalt and co-workers compiled the first catalogue of powder diffraction patterns, which has evolved into a file of about 44,000 patterns (the X-ray Powder Diffraction File or PDF). The Hannawalt method of manually searching the PDF is a time-tested, effective tool in seeking a match between an unknown pattern and its correct counterpart(s) in the PDF. Recently, computerized powder diffractometers with software to perform data reduction and search the PDF have become relatively common, and these systems offer tremendous potential for rapid and accurate phase identification in simple and complex systems where the data base may include 44,000 patterns.