Manganese Manganese Manganese is a chemical element with symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is not found as a free element in nature; it is often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a metal with important industrial metal alloy uses, particularly in stainless steels. Historically, manganese is named for pyrolusite and other black minerals from the region of Magnesia in Greece, which also gave its name to magnesium and the iron ore magnetite. By the mid-18th century, Swedish-German chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele had used pyrolusite to produce chlorine. Scheele and others were aware that pyrolusite (now known
Manganese(IV) fluoride of the grains. The reaction can also be carried out starting from manganese powder in a fluidized bed. Other preparations of MnF include the fluorination of MnF with krypton difluoride, or with F in liquid hydrogen fluoride solution under ultraviolet light. Manganese tetrafluoride has also been prepared (but not isolated) in an acid–base reaction between antimony pentafluoride and KMnF as part of a chemical synthesis of elemental fluorine. Manganese tetrafluoride is in equilibrium with manganese(III) fluoride and elemental fluorine: Decomposition is favoured by increasing temperature, and disfavoured by the presence of fluorine gas, but the exact parameters of the equilibrium