title: The hydrothermal synthesis, crystal structure and electrochemical properties of MnSb2O4.
abstract: Phase pure polycrystalline MnSb2O4was synthesised under hydrothermal conditions. Impurities formed outside a narrow range of pH and metal stoichiometric ratios. The structure and its temperature dependence was studied based on multi-temperature conventional single crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) and high resolution synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). At low temperature (100-300 K) the lattice parameters expanded linearly with thermal expansion coefficients of αa,300 K= 8(1) × 10-6K-1and αc,300 K= 7.2(2) × 10-6K-1. At high temperature an irreversible annealing effect was observed. Modelling the atomic displacement parameters based on the single crystal X-ray diffraction data gives a Debye temperature of 267(3) K for MnSb2O4. When heated in an oxygen-rich atmosphere MnSb2O4oxidises above 800 K and it decomposes at 975 K under inert conditions. Electrochemical measurements displayed similar behaviour to the isostructural CoSb2O4, with reversible alloying-dealloying of LixSb after the first cycle with a reversible capacity of 337 mAh g-1at the 2ndcycle, which degraded to c. 100 mAh g-1after 30 cycles.
authors.affiliation: Center for Materials Crystallography, Department of Chemistry and iNANO, Aarhus University, DK-8000, Aarhus, Denmark. bo@chem.au.dk.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roelsgaard
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nørby
authors.forename: Espen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eikeland
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Søndergaard
authors.forename: Bo Brummerstedt
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Iversen