Abstract
Semiconducting metal oxide nanostructured materials are demonstrating efficient use and functional properties in devices. Manganese oxide (Mn
2
O
3
) is one of the smart semiconductor metal oxides. The hydrothermal method was found suitable to prepare γ-Mn
2
O
3
nanoparticles. The nanostructural characterization using various advanced tools confirmed the purity and polymorph of the as-prepared γ-Mn
2
O
3
nanoparticles. Optical analyses exposed the presence of a possible dual-band-gap in γ-Mn
2
O
3
nanoparticles. A strong blue shift of 1.3 eV estimates the activation energy (
E
a
) of the nanoparticles. Furthermore, γ-Mn
2
O
3
nanoparticles were used as dielectrics to explore the dielectric response of the material in a broad frequency domain (50 Hz–30 MHz). The dielectric spectroscopy analyses revealed the regular value of the dielectric constant (∼ 9) in the high-frequency domain, the low value of the tangent loss (0.05 ≤ tan
δ
≥ 1.34), the frequency power law-dependent ac conductivity, the occurrence of single dielectric relaxation process of relaxation time 160 μs, and a non-Debye-type relaxation behavior in the γ-Mn
2
O
3
nanoparticles. The properties assessed here indicate the functional-behavior and prospective application of the γ-Mn
2
O
3
nanoparticles in devices.