Manganese(II) sulfate Manganese(II) sulfate Manganese(II) sulfate usually refers to the inorganic compound with the formula MnSO·HO. This pale pink deliquescent solid is a commercially significant manganese(II) salt. Approximately 260 thousand tonnes of manganese(II) sulfate were produced worldwide in 2005. It is the precursor to manganese metal and many other chemical compounds. Mn-deficient soil is remediated with this salt. Like many metal sulfates, manganese sulfate forms a variety of hydrates: monohydrate, tetrahydrate, pentahydrate, and heptahydrate. The monohydrate is most common. All of these salts dissolve to give faintly pink solutions of the aquo complex [Mn(HO)]. The pale pink colour of Mn(II) salts is
Manganese in glassmaking, manganese dioxide was available for experiments by alchemists, the first chemists. Ignatius Gottfried Kaim (1770) and Johann Glauber (17th century) discovered that manganese dioxide could be converted to permanganate, a useful laboratory reagent. By the mid-18th century, the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele used manganese dioxide to produce chlorine. First, hydrochloric acid, or a mixture of dilute sulfuric acid and sodium chloride was made to react with manganese dioxide, later hydrochloric acid from the Leblanc process was used and the manganese dioxide was recycled by the Weldon process. The production of chlorine and hypochlorite bleaching agents was a