| Manganese oxide nanomaterials have demonstrated applications, such as catalysts, selective MRI contrast agents, and fuel cells. The aim of this work is to develop hollow manganese oxide nanoparticles, which may offer improved performance over conventional nanocrystals. Different approaches have been developed to synthesize hollow manganese oxide nanoparticles; however, materials to date have large particle diameters and low surface area. We report a nanoscale oxidation of MnO that leads to a Kirkendall effect to synthesize high surface area hollow Mn3O4 nanoparticles exhibiting uniform shape and size. The starting MnO sample was prepared according to the ultra-large scale synthesis reported by Hyeon, so the reaction is scalable and reproducible. Furthermore, the progress of the nanoscale hollowing effect could be followed with ex-situ analyses of the nanoscale product that reveals important mechanistic information. |
