Large-Scale Synthesis and Comprehensive Structure Study of δ-MnO<sub>2</sub>.
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| 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 | :  2018 | 
| Journal | :  Inorganic chemistry | 
| Volume | :  57 | 
| Issue | :  12 | 
| Number of Pages | :  6873-6882 | 
| Date Published | :  2018 | 
| ISSN Number | :  0020-1669 | 
| URL | :  https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.8b00461 | 
| DOI | :  10.1021/acs.inorgchem.8b00461 | 
| Short Title | :  Inorg Chem | 
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