MnO₂Nanosheets: Birnessite-Type MnO₂Nanosheets with Layered Structures Under High Pressure: Elimination of Crystalline Stacking Faults and Oriented Laminar Assembly (Small 3/2015)

Y. Sun and co-workers show on page 300 how crystalline stacking faults can be squeezed out under extreme pressure. Birnessite-type δ-phase MnO2 nanosheets with a high concentration of stacking faults are synthesized through a microwave-assisted hydrothermal process to demonstrate capability of the pressurized strategy for perfecting crystalline lattices. Compressing these MnO2 nanosheets in a diamond anvil cell up to tens of GPa effectively eliminates the crystalline stacking faults, leading to an increase of symmetry of diffraction peaks.