Preparation of manganese molybdate rods and hollow olive-like spheres

Stable phase alpha-manganese molybdate (α-MnMoO4) rods, wolframite structure MnMoO4 hollow olive-like spheres and hexahedron-like manganese molybdate monohydrate (MnMoO4·H2O) were selectively synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method at 150–200 °C. Experiments showed that the reaction temperature, pH, molybdenum source and ligand played very important roles in controlling the polymorph and morphologies of the product. The samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Possible formation process of the product was proposed.