Diffraction techniques and structural models for amorphous materials

The need to use theoretical models to represent the structure of amorphous substances poses questions about the reliability of the experimental reference data against which these models are tested. An understanding of the real situation in the case of X-ray diffraction curves has been attempted. Through an empirical approach, based on the examination of five independent X-ray diffraction measurements taken on the same sample of amorphous silica, it is concluded that this technique is a selective filter for the various structural hypotheses.