Buserite is a hydrated layered manganese-oxide mineral with nominal chemical formula MnO2·nH2O.
It was named after Swiss chemist professor Wilhelm Buser (1917-1959), who first identified it in 1952 in deep-sea manganese nodules.
Buserite of marine ferromanganese nodules transforms into birnessite upon heating to 110 °C for several hours.
[5] The relationship between the crystal structure and the properties of hydrated phyllomanganates were studied by Newton and Kwon (2018) using molecular simulations:[6] Buserite reacts strongly with trace metals due to the presence of octahedral Mn4+ vacancies in the MnO2 layer.
[3][7] The defective structure of phyllomanganates from the buserite-birnessite family affords them a key geochemical role in many environmental systems that affect soil and water composition via cation exchange and adsorption of trace metals.