Hydrothermal Synthesis and Characterisation of Mn<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Nanowires

Abstract

In this Letter, we reported the facile synthesis of manganese (III) oxide (Mn2O3) nanowires via the facile hydrothermal treatment in the presence of ammonia, which were prepared simply by hydrothermal treatment of commercial bulky Mn2O3crystals at 160oC for 24 h. The obtained Mn2O3products consist a large quantity of nanwires with the diameters of 30-90 nm, and lengths ranging from 1 to 10 μm. Such high quality nanowires with high aspect ratio have a variety of promising applications. The simplicity of hydrothermal process, cheapness, and availability of raw materials, without the need of catalyst or template, are advantages favoring industrial manufacturing in scaled-up process by the novel method. X-ray and transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy have been employed to characterize these materials. In addition, the possible growth mechanism of the Mn2O3nanowires was also proposed. The growth of Mn2O3nanowires occurredviaa dissolution-recrystallization process.