Pure metal manganese is a slightly softer metal than iron. Manganese containing a small amount of impurities is hard and brittle, and will be oxidized when wet. Manganese exists widely in nature, with the content of 0.25% in soil and more in tea, wheat and hard-shelled fruit. The operations exposed to manganese include sandstone, mining, electric welding, dry battery production, dye industry and so on.
In 1774, Gann separated metallic manganese. Bergman named it manganese. Manganese can be produced by reducing pyrolusite by aluminothermic method.
The earliest use of manganese can be traced back to the Stone Age. As early as 17000 years ago, manganese oxide (pyrolusite) was used as a pigment in cave murals by people in the late Paleolithic period, and manganese was later found in weapons used by Spartans in ancient Greece. Ancient Egyptians and Romans used manganese ore to decolorize or dye glass.
Although pyrolusite has been used for a long time, until11970s, western chemists still thought pyrolusite was a mineral containing tin, zinc and cobalt.
/kloc-in the late 8th century, Swedish chemist T.O. Bergman studied pyrolusite, which was considered as a new metal oxide. He tried to separate the metal, but failed.