Dear Sirs I am writing to you because we are not familiar with xanes. We took xanes spectra of both sample (synthesized by us and we think it as gamma-Mn2O3 ) and Mn3O4 (reference) to make sure that we synthesized gamma-Mn2O3 nanoparticles. The particle diameters ranged from 10 to 15 nm. By using XRD pattern, the structure of sample was determined to be tetragonal with lattice constants of a=5.79 A and c=9.4 A, similar to Mn3O4. From the XRD patterns, we can not distinguish between gamma-Mn2O3 and Mn3O4 because both show nearly identical XRD patterns (JACS 72, 856 (1950)). We attached a data file. Could you please tell us whether the sample is gamma-Mn2O3 nanoparticles or not. Sincerely, Prof. Gang Ho Lee Department of Chemistry College of Natural Sciences Kyungpook National University Taegu 702-701, South Korea tel: 001-82-53-950-5340 fax: 001-82-53-950-6330 e-mail: ghlee@bh.knu.ac.kr