

Manganese, as an alloying additive, can enhance the alloy's strength, hardness, elastic limit, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance. Additionally, it has wide applications in the production of dry batteries and glass.
Manganese powder is a fine powder that is either dark gray or black and consists of extremely small-sized manganese particles. Its appearance is metallic-looking, and it possesses a slightly abrasive feel to it. Applications include the use of manganese powder as a raw material in steel production, battery manufacturing, and chemical synthesis.
Manganese is a brittle, hard, silver-gray metal with a lustrous surface similar to that of iron. It is approximately 7.21 g/cm³ dense, boiling at 2095°C and melting at 1244°C. It is a good resistor at elevated temperatures and possesses quite good electrical conductivity. Manganese is antiferromagnetic when in its pure form, meaning that it is not influenced by external magnetic fields. But when manganese combines to form compounds or alloys, its magnetic properties can be altered based on its chemical bonding state with other elements.
Property |
Value/Description |
Chemical Formula |
Mn |
CAS Registry Number |
7439-96-5 |
EINECS Number |
231-105-1 |
Melting Point |
1244 ℃ |
Boiling Point |
2095 ℃ |
Water Solubility |
Insoluble in water |
Density |
7.21 g/cm³ (γ-Mn) |
Appearance |
Silvery-white |
Applications |
Automotive batteries, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials |
Hazard Symbol |
F (Highly flammable) |
Risk Phrase |
R11 (Highly flammable) |
UN Number |
3264 |
Atomic Number |
25 |
Atomic Weight |
54.9380 |
Electron Configuration |
[Ar]3d54s² |
Manganese powder comes in a variety of particle sizes and shapes, including spherical, flaky, and irregular forms, which affect its flowability, compaction, and sintering capabilities.
Summary:
Approximately 90% of the total yearly use of manganese globally is utilized within the iron and steel sector, with 10% divided among the non-ferrous metallurgy, chemical industry, electronics, batteries, and agrarian sectors.
Iron and Steel Industry
Manganese is an important element in steel production. Manganese acts as an alloying addition to increase the hardness, strength, and wear resistance of steel. Manganese also helps in desulfurization and deoxidation operations, and improves the forgeability and rollability. Manganese alloys are necessary to make specialty steels such as stainless steel, high-strength steel, special alloy steels, welding electrodes for stainless steel, and wear-resistant steel.
Non-Ferrous Metallurgy
Manganese dioxide (MnO2) or potassium permanganate (KMnO4) is used as an oxidizing agent for the hydrometallurgical processing of copper, zinc, cadmium, and uranium. The reagents oxidize ferrous iron (Fe²+) in acidic solution to ferric iron (Fe³+), which enables pH control and subsequent iron precipitation for separation.
Manganese forms numerous industrially significant alloys with copper, aluminum, and magnesium, such as brass, bronze, cupronickel, manganese-aluminum alloys, and magnesium-manganese alloys. Manganese additions enhance their corrosion resistance, resistance to wear, and strength. Of special interest are 1.3%–1.5% manganese-containing magnesium alloys with improved corrosion and temperature resistance and widespread use in the aerospace industry.
Battery Industry
The largest metallo-matrix application of manganese is as manganese dioxide (MnO2) as a depolarizer in dry-cell batteries. Manganese tetroxide (Mn3O4) of battery quality recently began to displace part of the electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) due to its advantages of low impurities, high purity, and homogeneous particle size, particularly in the production of lithium manganate (LiMn2O4) cathode material.
Chemical Industry
Manganese compounds are also employed in dyes, pigments, and drugs manufacture. Manganates serve as oxidizing agents in organic synthesis processes.
Electronics Industry
Manganese-zinc ferrite (MnZn) magnetic cores find large applications to make various inductive devices, including transformers, coils, and chokes. Such devices find extensive applications in communication hardware, home appliances, computer hardware, and automation systems in industry.
Medical Applications
Potassium permanganate (KMnO2) remains the most widely used disinfectant in medicine. Manganese is also used to prepare some drugs, such as the treatment of manganese deficiency syndromes.