SYNTHESIS OF γ-MnOOH NANORODS BY HYDROTHERMAL METHODS

A hydrothermal method has been utilized to synthesize nanorods γ-MnOOH. The main application of γ-MnOOH nanorods is in the synthesis of rod-like LiMnO₂, which is a cathode material in rechargeable lithium based batteries. A specially designed autoclave has been utilized to carry out the hydrothermal synthesis of γ-MnOOH. KMnO₄, cetyltrimethylammoniumbromide (CTAB) and H₂O were used as starting materials. The resulting product was characterized using XRD-, SEM- and TEM methods. Results of the refinement of the XRD relection patterns confirm the reported monoclinic crystal system for γ-MnOOH, with reliability factors of R_wp = 20.36%, R_e = 15.79%, R_I = 2.76% and goodness of fit indicator of S = 1.2874. The size and morphology of the samples inspected by SEM method show that the obtained γ-MnOOH sample consists of nanorods of 100-400 nm diameters and of lengths of up to 10 μm. TEM micrograms also confirmed the nanorod morphology of the sample's microstructurestructure. Overall, it has been shown that the one-step hydrothermal method is a very effective method to produce nano materials.