Preparation of Indian Reference Material for the calibration of Powder X-ray Diffractometer: α-Alumina

The CSIR-National Physical Laboratory of India (NPLI) constantly prepares and disseminates Indian Reference Materials (Bharatiya Nirdeshak Dravya; BND®) in various areas. Recently, NPLI has prepared the Indian Reference Material (IRM) of α-Alumina to calibrate the Powder X-Ray Diffractometer (PXRD). In this report, the preparation and certification procedure of α-Alumina (BND 2001) has been examined as an Indian Reference Material that can be utilized as the primary standard for powder X-ray diffraction instruments. The developed IRM was utilized to calibrate PXRD for phase purity. The stability of the prepared α-alumina was studied by using powder X-ray diffractometer. The homogeneity and the particle size of the material were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy. The repeatability of the preparation and pertinent characterization were affirmed using different calibrated instruments. The phase purity of the material was verified by performing a round-robin test, and the related uncertainty estimations were reported in the paper.