This paper introduces a novel hydrothermal soft chemical synthesis process for manganese oxide nanostructured particles using two-dimensional manganese oxide nanosheets as precursor. In this process, a birnessite-type manganese oxide with a layered structure was exfoliated into its elementary layer nanosheets, and then the nanosheets were hydrothermally treated to transform the two-dimensional morphology of the nanosheets to one-dimensional nanoparticles. The manganese oxide nanofibers, nanotubes, nanobelts, nanoribbons, and fabric-ribbon-like particles constructed from nanofibers or nanobelts were obtained using this hydrothermal soft chemical process. The nanostructural evolution from the two-dimensional nanosheets to the one-dimensional nanoparticles was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM. and TG-DTA analysis. The morphology and nanostructure of the products are strongly dependent on the molecular dimension of organic amine cations added in the reaction system. The organic amine cations act as a morphology directing agent in the nanostructural evolution process. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.