The limit of application of the Scherrer equation.

The Scherrer equation is a widely used tool to obtain crystallite size from polycrystalline samples. Its limit of applicability has been determined recently, using computer simulations, for a few structures and it was proposed that it is directly dependent on the linear absorption coefficient (μ0) and Bragg angle (θB). In this work, a systematic study of the Scherrer limit is presented, where it is shown that it is equal to approximately 11.9% of the extinction length. It is also shown that absorption imposes a maximum value on it and that this maximum is directly proportional to sin θB/μ0.