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Allotropes

Four allotropes (structural forms) of solid manganese are known, labeled α, β, γ and δ, and occurring at successively higher temperatures. All are metallic, stable at standard pressure, and have a cubic crystal lattice, but they vary widely in their atomic structures.

Alpha manganese (α-Mn) is the equilibrium phase at room temperature. It has a body-centered cubic lattice and is unusual among elemental metals in having a very complex unit cell, with 58 atoms per cell (29 atoms per primitive unit cell) in four different types of site. It is paramagnetic at room temperature and antiferromagnetic at temperatures below 95 K (−178 °C).

Beta manganese (β-Mn) forms when heated above the transition temperature of 973 K (700 °C; 1,290 °F). It has a primitive cubic structure with 20 atoms per unit cell at two types of sites, which is as complex as that of any other elemental metal. It is easily obtained as a metastable phase at room temperature by rapid quenching. It does not show magnetic ordering, remaining paramagnetic down to the lowest temperature measured (1.1 K).

Gamma manganese (γ-Mn) forms when heated above 1,370 K (1,100 °C; 2,010 °F). It has a simple face-centered cubic structure (four atoms per unit cell). When quenched to room temperature it converts to β-Mn, but it can be stabilized at room temperature by alloying it with at least 5 percent of other elements (such as C, Fe, Ni, Cu, Pd or Au), and these solute-stabilized alloys distort into a face-centered tetragonal structure.

Delta manganese (δ-Mn) forms when heated above 1,406 K (1,130 °C; 2,070 °F) and is stable up to the manganese melting point of 1,519 K (1,250 °C; 2,270 °F). It has a body-centered cubic structure (two atoms per cubic unit cell).