Crystallization Pathways and Evolution of Morphologies and Structural Defects of α-MnO under Air Annealing.

Manganese dioxide nanomaterials have wide applications in many areas from catalysis and Li-ion batteries to gas sensing. Understanding the crystallization pathways, morphologies, and formation of defects in their structure is particularly important but still a challenging issue. Herein, we employed an arsenal of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), neutron diffraction, positron annihilation spectroscopies, and calculations to investigate the evolution of the morphology and structure of α-MnO nanomaterials prepared via reduction of KMnO solution with CHOH prior to being annealed in air at 200-600 °C.