High resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy of manganese oxides: Application to Mn3O4 nanoparticles

Manganese oxides particularly Mn₃O₄ Hausmannite are currently used in many industrial applications such as catalysis, magnetism, electrochemistry or air contamination. The downsizing of the particle size of such material permits an improvement of its intrinsic properties and a consequent increase in its performances compared to a classical micron-sized material. Here, we report a novel synthesis of hydrophilic nano-sized Mn₃O₄, a bivalent oxide, for which a precise characterization is necessary and for which the determination of the valency proves to be essential. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and particularly High Resolution Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (HREELS) allow us to perform these measurements on the nanometer scale. Well crystallized 10–20 nm sized Mn₃O₄ particles with sphere-shaped morphology were thus successfully synthesized. Meticulous EELS investigations allowed the determination of a Mn³⁺/Mn²⁺ ratio of 1.5, i.e. slightly lower than the theoretical value of 2 for the bulk Hausmannite manganese oxide. This result emphasizes the presence of vacancies on the tetrahedral sites in the structure of the as-synthesized nanomaterial.