Manganese(IV) fluoride Manganese(IV) fluoride Manganese tetrafluoride, MnF, is the highest fluoride of manganese. It is a powerful oxidizing agent and is used as a means of purifying elemental fluorine. Manganese tetrafluoride was first unequivocally prepared in 1961 by the reaction of manganese(II) fluoride (or other Mn compounds) with a stream of fluorine gas at 550 °C: the MnF sublimes into the gas stream and condenses onto a cold finger. This is still the commonest method of preparation, although the sublimation can be avoided by operating at increased fluorine pressure (4.5–6 bar at 180–320 °C) and mechanically agitating the powder to avoid sintering
Manganese white magnesia alba (magnesium oxide), which provided the name magnesium for the free element when it was isolated much later. Several colorful oxides of manganese, for example manganese dioxide, are abundant in nature and have been used as pigments since the Stone Age. The cave paintings in Gargas that are 30,000 to 24,000 years old contain manganese pigments. Manganese compounds were used by Egyptian and Roman glassmakers, either to add to, or remove color from glass. Use as "glassmakers soap" continued through the Middle Ages until modern times and is evident in 14th-century glass from Venice. Because it was used