Three-dimensional electron diffraction on clinkers: the belite α' incommensurate modulated structure.

Traditional X-ray methods are extensively applied to commercial cement samples in order to determine their physical and chemical properties. Powder patterns are routinely used to quantify the composition of these phase mixtures, but structure determination becomes difficult because of reflection overlapping caused by the high number of different crystal structures. The fast-growing 3D electron diffraction technique and its related automated acquisition protocols arise as a potentially very interesting tool for the cement industry, since they enable the fast and systematic acquisition of diffraction data from individual particles.