Diffraction line profiles and Scherrer constants for materials with hexagonal crystallites

Diffraction line profiles and Scherrer constants for use with various measures of diffraction broadening are derived for right hexagonal prisms. A method is described for obtaining the size of crystallites with this form and a comparison is made with a cylindrical model. The technique is applied to annealed ZnO powder obtained from the thermal decomposition of Zn₃(OH)₄(NO₃)₂. The Fourier method is used to show that the crystallites are hexagonal prisms with an average height and edge length of 213 and 87 Å and with the z axis parallel to the axis of the prism and x or y parallel to an edge.