Mechano-chemical synthesis K2MF6 (M = Mn, Ni) by cation-exchange reaction at room temperature

Abstract

In order to establish the power of mechanochemistry to produce industrially important phosphors, synthesis of K2MnF6 has been attempted by the successive grinding reactions of manganese (II) acetate with ammonium fluoride and potassium fluoride. The progress of reaction was followed by ex-situ characterization after periodic intervals of time. Cubic symmetry of K2MnF6 was evident from its powder X-ray diffraction pattern which was refined successfully in cubic space group (Fm-3m) with a = 8.4658 (20) Å. Stretching and bending vibration modes of MnF62− octahedral units appeared at 740 and 482 cm−1 in the fourier transformed infrared spectrum. Bands at 405 and 652 cm−1 appeared in the Raman spectrum and they were finger-print positions of cubic K2MnF6. Other than the ligand to metal charge transfer transition at 242 nm, transitions from 4A2g to 4T1g, 4T2g and 2T2g of Mn4+-ion appeared at 352, 429, 474 and 569 nm in the UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectrum of the sample. Red emission due to Mn4+ was observed in the photoluminescence spectrum with a decay time of 0.22 ms. Following the success in forming cubic K2MnF6, this approach has been extended to synthesize cubic K2NiF6 at room temperature. All these results confirmed the susceptibility of acetate salts of transition metals belonging to first-row of the periodic table to facile fluorination at room temperature aided by mechanical forces.