Buserite is a hydrated layered Mn-

oxide mineral The oxide mineral class includes those minerals in which the oxide anion (O2−) is bonded to one or more metal alloys. The hydroxide-bearing minerals are typically included in the oxide class. The minerals with complex anion groups such as the si ...

with nominal chemical formula MnO₂.''n''H₂O. It was named after

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

chemist professor W. Buser, who first identified it in 1952 in deep-sea

manganese nodule Polymetallic nodules, also called manganese nodules, are mineral concretions on the sea bottom formed of concentric layers of iron and manganese hydroxides around a core. As nodules can be found in vast quantities, and contain valuable metals, de ...

s. Buser named it 10 Å

manganate In inorganic nomenclature, a manganate is any negatively charged molecular entity with manganese as the central atom.. However, the name is usually used to refer to the tetraoxidomanganate(2−) anion, MnO, also known as manganate(VI) because it c ...

because the periodicity in the layer stacking direction was 10 Å. It was renamed buserite in 1970 by the nomenclature commission of the

International Mineralogical Association Founded in 1958, the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is an international group of 40 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 5000 plus known mineral species. Th ...

(IMA). More recent crystallographic studies have shown that buserite is not a distinct mineral species, but a two-water layer form of the one-water layer phyllomanganate

birnessite Birnessite (nominally MnO2.''n''H2O) is a hydrous manganese dioxide mineral with a chemical formula of Na0.7Ca0.3Mn7O14·2.8H2O. It is the main manganese mineral species at the Earth's surface, and commonly occurs as fine-grained, poorly crystall ...

, which has a characteristic periodicity of 7 Å perpendicularly to the MnO₂ layers. When taken out of

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

, buserite may lose one layer of water and transform into

. Some buserite minerals are resistant to dehydratation to various degrees, however, depending on the structure of the interlayer. Buserite of marine ferromangnanese nodules transforms into birnessite upon heating to 110 °C for several hours. Natural buserite is most often finely grained and poorly-crystallized. The MnO₂ layers are generally stacked at random like in vernadite, which is a turbostratic

. For this reason, buserite is also named 10 Å vernadite in the literature. The relationship between the crystal structure and the properties of hydrated phyllomanganates were studied by Newton and Kwon (2018) using molecular simulations: Buserite reacts strongly with trace metals due to the presence of octahedral Mn⁴⁺ vacancies in the MnO₂ layer. The defective structure of phyllomanganates from the buserite-birnessite family affords them a key geochemical role in many environmental systems that affect soil and water composition via cation exchange and adsorption of trace metals. Slight variations in their structural and chemical composition often result in a dramatic difference in their chemical reactivity. The enrichment in Co²⁺, Ni²⁺ and Cu²⁺ of 10 Å vernadite in

s is manifold.

References

Manganese minerals Oxide minerals {{oxide-mineral-stub