Electrochemical Preparation and Characterization of Mn5O8 Nanostructures

Electrochemical synthesis followed by heat-treatment is a facile and easy method for preparation of nanostructured metal oxides. Herein we report nanostructured Mn5O8 prepared through pulse cathodic deposition followed by heat-treatment for the first time. For the preparation of Mn5O8 nanorods, pulse cathodic electrodeposition was first done from 0.005M Mn(NO3)2 at the current density of 5 mA cm-2 which yield Mn3O4 precursor. Then, heat-treatment of the deposited precursor was performed to obtain final Mn5O8 product. The structural and morphological properties of the prepared product were investigated by XRD, FT-IR, SEM and TEM techniques. The analysis results revealed that the prepared sample has pure Mn5O8 composition with rod morphology at nanoscale. Mechanism of deposit formation during pulse deposition was proposed and discussed. The formation of Mn5O8 nanorods via calcination of Mn3O4 precursor was also studied by thermogravimetric analysis. The results suggested that the cathodic electrodeposition-heat treatment method can be considered as simple and facile route for preparation of Mn5O8 nanorods.