Manganese tetrathiotungstate material

1. A composition comprising a material comprised of manganese tetrathiotungstate.

2. The composition of claim 1 in which manganese and tungsten of the manganese tetrathiotungstate material are bridged by, and bonded to, sulfur atoms according to formula (I)

where M is either manganese or tungsten and at least one M is manganese and at least one M is tungsten.

3. The composition of claim 1 in which the manganese tetrathiotungstate material is comprised of at least three linked chain elements, the chain elements being comprised of a first chain element including manganese and having a structure according to formula (II) and a second chain element including tungsten and having a structure according to formula (III)manganese and tungsten of the manganese tetrathiotungstate material are bridged by, and bonded to, sulfur atoms according to the formula (II)

where M 1 is manganese and M 2 is tungsten, and the manganese tetrathiotungstate material contains at least one first chain element and at least one second chain element where at least a portion of the chain elements in the manganese tetrathiotungstate material are linked by bonds between the two sulfur atoms of a chain element and the metal of an adjacent chain element.

4. The composition of claim 1 wherein the manganese tetrathiotungstate material of the present invention is comprised of monomeric units that repeat in the material to form a polymer, where a monomeric unit is comprised of tungsten and manganese, where the tungsten and the manganese are bridged by, and bonded to, two sulfur atoms according to formula (IV)

where M 1 is the manganese, M 2 is tungsten, and x is at least 2.

5. The composition of claim 4 wherein x is at least 5.

6. The composition of claim 1 wherein the manganese tetrathiotungstate material is in the form of a plurality of fibers.

7. The composition of claim 6 wherein at least of portion of the fibers of the plurality of fibers have a width of up to 20 nm and a length of at least 100 nm.

8. The composition of claim 1 wherein the manganese tetrathiotungstate material has a BET surface area of from 50 m 2 /g to 500 m 2 /g.

9. The composition of claim 1 in which the manganese tetrathiotungstate material contains at most 0.01 wt. % oxygen.

10. The composition of claim 1 in which the manganese tetrathiotungstate material contains less than 0.5 wt. % of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal.

11. The composition of claim 1 wherein the manganese tetrathiotungstate material is at least 50% crystalline.

12. The composition of claim 1 containing contains less than 0.5 wt. % of ligands other than sulfur-metal bonded complexes between sulfur and manganese and between sulfur and tungsten.

13. The composition of claim 1 in which the manganese tetrathiotungstate material is comprised of alternating MnS 4 and WS 4 tetrahedral formations located adjacent to each other, where the metal of each tetrahedral formation is bonded to at least two sulfur atoms that are also bonded to the metal of an adjacent tetrahedral formation.

14. The composition of claim 1 wherein the manganese tetrathiotungstate material is acicular.