A new approach in the one-step synthesis of α-MnO(2)via a modified solution combustion procedure

Manganese oxides were synthesized systematically via the solution combustion procedure using two kinds of fuels, namely glycine and urea. The influences of the type of fuel and the fuel ratio were deeply investigated to explain the phase evolution and morphology of the product. The synthesized nanostructured powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction, particle size analysis, and FESEM. Furthermore, the thermodynamic aspects of all the synthesis reactions were studied by the calculation of the adiabatic temperature. Various manganese oxides, such as MnO, Mn(3)O(4), Mn(2)O(3), and MnO(2), were obtained by varying the fuel ratio from 0.15 to 2. It was found that decreasing the fuel ratio promoted the formation of MnO(2) by declining the combustion temperature and reductive conditions of the system. However, α-MnO(2) could be simply achieved by adding KNO(3) in a modified solution combustion process under fuel-lean conditions. Further heat treatment of the product was found to increase the crystallinity of the α-MnO(2) nanoparticles.