MH, JK, and TWP defined the research topic. TDL provided the GaAs sample. selleck screening library YTL prepared the precursor-purged interfaces. HYL acquired the photoemission data. TWP wrote the paper. GKW and MH provided critical comments on the draft manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Background During the past decade, manganese oxides have attracted considerable research interest due to their distinctive physical and chemical properties and potential applications in catalysis, ion exchange, molecular adsorption, biosensor, and energy storage [1–12]. Particularly, nanometer-sized manganese oxides are of great significance in that their large specific surface areas and

small sizes may bring some novel electrical, magnetic, and catalytic properties

different from that of bulky materials. A wide variety of manganese oxides (e.g., MnO2, Mn2O3, and Mn3O4) have been synthesized through various methods [13–24]. Among them, manganese monoxide (MnO) is a model system for theoretical Tubastatin A study of the electronic and magnetic properties of rock salt oxides [25], and its nanoclusters interestingly exhibit ferromagnetic characteristics [26]. On the other hand, MnO is very interesting for its lower charge potential (1.0 V vs. Li/Li+) compared to other transition metal oxides [27]. It has been reported that a relatively high voltage and energy density can be obtained when it was coupled with a certain cathode material to construct a full lithium ion cell [28]. In terms of the synthesis methods of MnO, several approaches have been developed to prepare nanostructured MnO with different morphologies [28–42], such as hydrothermal reactions and subsequent annealing [28],

thermal decomposition of Mn-containing organometallic compounds [29–32], thermal decomposition of MnCO3 precursor [33, 34], vapor-phase deposition [37], etc. More recently, Lin et al. reported a simple one-pot synthesis Orotidine 5′-phosphate decarboxylase of monodispersed MnO nanoparticles (NPs) using bulk MnO as the starting material and oleic acid as solvent [38]. Sun et al. reported a microwave-polyol process to synthesize disk-like Mn complex precursor that was topotactically converted into porous C-modified MnO disks by post-heating treatment [41]. However, these methods are often associated with the use of high-toxicity, environmentally harmful, and high-cost organic additives. Moreover, the by-products may have a detrimental effect on the size, shape, and phase purity of the MnO NPs obtained. It still remains a major challenge to prepare high-quality monophase MnO NPs due to the uncontrollable phase transformation of multivalent manganese oxides (MnO2, Mn2O3, and Mn3O4). In the present work, we report a simple, cost-effective, and additive-free method for the synthesis of uniform MnO nanorods with large specific surface area, in which cheap manganese acetate and ethanol were used as starting materials.