Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2013
An iterative external standard method of X-ray diffraction is presented to overcome the difficulties of preferred orientation and peak overlap encountered in quantitative phase analysis. Instead of using only a single line intensity in the traditional external standard technique, all the reflection data are used in the calculation. The accuracy and applicability of this method was tested on a series of two-phase powder mixtures with known composition. The results show markedly good agreement with the actual values. As an example, the analysis was applied to the data collected from an as plated electrodeposited Zn-Fe coating. The determined phase composition of the coating was found to be 88.2 +/− 5.3 wt % δ-phase and 11.8 +/− 0.7 wt % η -phase.