This paper reports on the swelling and exfoliation behavior of a layered protonic manganese oxide, H0.13MnO2.0.7H(2)O, in a solution of tetrabutylammonium (TBA) hydroxide and the formation and characterizations of unilamellar two-dimensional crystallites of MnO2. At low doses of TBA ions, layered manganese oxide was observed to undergo normal intercalation, yielding a TBA intercalated phase with a gallery height of 1.25 nm. With a large excess of TBA ions, osmotic swelling occurred, giving rise to a very large intersheet separation of 3.5-7 nm. In an intermediate TBA concentration range, the sample exhibited a broad X-ray diffraction profile with superimposed diffraction features due to intercalation and osmotic swelling. The component responsible for the broad profile was isolated by centrifuging the mixture twice at different speeds, and the recovered colloid was identified as a pile of MnO2 nanosheets, corresponding to the individual host layer of the precursor layered manganese oxide. Observations by transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy revealed high two-dimensional anisotropy with a lateral dimension of submicrometers and a thickness of similar to0.8 nm. The nanosheet exhibited broad optical absorption with a peak at 374 nm (epsilon = 1.13 x 10(4) mol(-1) dm(3) cm(-1)). The restacking process of the colloidal MnO2 nanosheets was followed by aging the colloid at a relative humidity of 95%. The broad diffraction pattern due to the exfoliated sheets weakened with time and eventually resolved into two sharp distinct profiles attributable to a TBA intercalation compound with an intersheet spacing of 1.72 nm and an osmotically swollen hydrate with > 10 nm at a very early stage. As drying progressed, the former phase became more abundant without a change in interlayer distance, while the degree of swelling of the latter phase gradually decreased to 2.7 nm that remained unchanged on further aging. Subsequent drying at a lower humidity collapsed the 2.7 nm phase. The resulting single 1.72 nm phase was dehydrated by heating at 150 degreesC to produce a phase with a contracted interlayer spacing of 1.3 nm.