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Amorphous MnO2 are synthesized using KMnO4, butanol, and propylene glycol in an aqueous solution by using the precipitation method, under ambient conditions. The structure, molecular vibrations, surface morphological and optical properties of MnO2 powders are studied using XRD, FTIR, SEM and UV-vis spectroscopy. From the XRD patterns, it is clear that both butanol and propylene glycol assisted MnO2 particles are amorphous in nature. While the strong peak is noticed at 1384 cm-1 in the FTIR spectra, which is due to the characteristic peak of MnO2. SEM photographs show spherical shapes of MnO2 particles, and the average size of a particle is about 200 nm for butanol assisted samples and is around 500 nm for propylene glycol assisted samples. Butanol assisted MnO2 particles exhibit higher optical absorption in the visible region than propylene glycol. However, the estimated optical band gap of both the samples is found around 2.33 eV. doi:10.14456/WJST.2014.22