Determination of cations distribution in Mn3O4 by anomalous x-ray powder diffraction

The oxidation states of Mn at two different crystallographic sites in the distorted spinel structure of Mn3O4 were determined by the approach of anomalous synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction. The real parts of anomalous scattering factors for the two Mn sites were refined from a series of powder diffraction patterns collected at the vicinity of K absorption edge of Mn. The results of Rietveld refinements showed that the two distinct cation sites can obviously be distinguished from each other and that Mn2+ ions occupy the tetrahedral site and Mn3+ ions are located at the octahedral site.