By contrast growth and mounting of large single crystals is notoriously difficult. In fact there are many materials for which, despite many attempts, it has not proven possible to obtain single crystals. Many materials are readily available with sufficient microcrystallinity for powder diffraction, or samples may be easily ground from larger crystals. In the field of solid-state chemistry that often aims at synthesizing "new" materials, single crystals thereof are typically not immediately available. Powder diffraction is therefore one of the most powerful methods to identify and characterize new materials in this field.