Pair distribution function of ammonium nitrate - a comparison of measuring systems

Energetic materials are often nanocrystalline, amorphous, liquid or gel structured. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain structural information from these materials by conventional structure analysis using X-ray diffraction. This contribution shows the possibility to achieve structural information with the aid of the pair distribution function (PDF). The energetic material ammonium nitrate was chosen as an example for comparative measurements on laboratory measuring systems with different wavelengths and X-ray optics. The diffraction data were used for calculating the PDFs and the results are evaluated in order to improve measurement conditions for energetic materials. It is shown that it is possible to calculate reasonable PDFs of energetic materials from measurements on laboratory.