What Does a Broad Peak at 2θ = 20.92° Indicate in Polymer XRD Analysis?

[SPEOTW]

TL;DR Summary

Confusion about amorphous and crystalline region on XRD result

So i just have my XRD result (Polymer Specimen) which i use to determine crystallinity of my material, and it turns out that my material has no obvious peak, and have a broad peak which usually associated with amorphous material. I added some filler to my material and it became more and more broad but the peak stays there. does it mean my material become "more amorphous" or what does it mean

 

[Baluncore]

What do the different coloured traces represent?
What was the filler you added to the polymer?

I agree, it does look like an amorphous material.
What was the isomer and catalyst?
Does it progressively crystallise over time?

 

[SPEOTW]

Hii thanks for answering my question , my material was Chitosan + PEO + LiClO4 and i added Al2O3 in it, the black one represent 0% filler, red one is 3%, blue is 5%, and green is 7%.

So the trend i saw here is the peak became broader and broader, what does it correlates to the crystallinity of my material.

 

[Tom.G]

A quick evaluation in an image processing program indicates that the peaks are indentical in width but their amplitude above their baselines decreases as filler is added.

This would indicate that the filler is scattering the x-rays, thereby raising the baseline.

Measuring in "Intensity" units, starting with the Green trace at the top:
"Peak" heights above their local baseline;
80
110
130
160

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Baluncore]

What is the source of the broad peak at 2θ = 20.92° ?

It appears that the traces are stacked on the intensity axis, with loss of the baseline references. That makes it difficult to separate out the effects of the polymer and the filler, which I suspect is part of what we are seeing.

To analyse this further, I would need to see the intensity plot baseline for the sample support without a sample, and the plot with 100% filler alone, without polymer.