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Large-Scale Synthesis and Comprehensive Structure Study of δ-MnO<sub>2</sub>.

Author
Abstract
:

Layered δ-MnO (birnessites) are ubiquitous in nature and have also been reported to work as promising water oxidation catalysts or rechargeable alkali-ion battery cathodes when fabricated under appropriate conditions. Although tremendous effort has been spent on resolving the structure of natural/synthetic layered δ-MnO in the last few decades, no conclusive result has been reached. In this Article, we report an environmentally friendly route to synthesizing homogeneous Cu-rich layered δ-MnO nanoflowers in large scale. The local and average structure of synthetic Cu-rich layered δ-MnO has been successfully resolved from combined Mn/Cu K-edge extended X-ray fine structure spectroscopy and X-ray and neutron total scattering analysis. It is found that appreciable amounts (∼8%) of Mn vacancies are present in the MnO layer and Cu occupies the interlayer sites above/below the vacant Mn sites. Effective hydrogen bonding among the interlayer water molecules and adjacent layer O ions has also been observed for the first time. These hydrogen bonds are found to play the key role in maintaining the intermediate and long-range stacking coherence of MnO layers. Quantitative analysis of the turbostratic stacking disorder in this compound was achieved using a supercell approach coupled with anisotropic particle-size-effect modeling. The present method is expected to be generally applicable to the structural study of other technologically important nanomaterials.

Year of Publication
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2018
Journal
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Inorganic chemistry
Volume
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57
Issue
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12
Number of Pages
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6873-6882
Date Published
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2018
ISSN Number
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0020-1669
URL
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https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.8b00461
DOI
:
10.1021/acs.inorgchem.8b00461
Short Title
:
Inorg Chem
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