Impact of interactions between metal oxides to oxidative reactivity of manganese dioxide

Manganese oxides typically exist as mixtures with other metal oxides in soil-water environments; however, information is only available on their redox activity as single oxides. To bridge this gap, we examined three binary oxide mixtures containing MnO(2) and a secondary metal oxide (Al(2)O(3), SiO(2) or TiO(2)). The goal was to understand how these secondary oxides affect the oxidative reactivity of MnO(2). SEM images suggest significant heteroaggregation between Al(2)O(3) and MnO(2) and to a lesser extent between SiO(2)/TiO(2) and MnO(2). Using triclosan and chlorophene as probe compounds, pseudofirst-order kinetic results showed that Al(2)O(3) had the strongest inhibitory effect on MnO(2) reactivity, followed by SiO(2) and then TiO(2). Al(3+) ion or soluble SiO(2) had comparable inhibitory effects as Al(2)O(3) or SiO(2), indicating the dominant inhibitory mechanism was surface complexation/precipitation of Al/Si species on MnO(2) surfaces. TiO(2) inhibited MnO(2) reactivity only when a limited amount of triclosan was present. Due to strong adsorption and slow desorption of triclosan by TiO(2), precursor-complex formation between triclosan and MnO(2) was much slower and likely became the new rate-limiting step (as opposed to electron transfer in all other cases). These mechanisms can also explain the observed adsorption behavior of triclosan by the binary oxide mixtures and single oxides.