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In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Publication history
Received October 13, 2025
Revised February 1, 2026
Accepted February 13, 2026
Available online June 26, 2026
articles This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Dual-Function MnBi2O4: Ni for Flexible Supercapacitors and SunlightDriven Degradation of Organic Pollutants

Centro de Física Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada - Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, 1Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico en Electroquímica S. C 2Centro de Investigación en Materiales Avanzados S.C.
joliva@fata.unam.mx, psalas@fata.unam.mx
Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, June 2026, 43(8), 2177-2198(22)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-026-00679-2

Abstract

We report Ni-doped MnBi2O4 (MnNiBi) as a defect-engineered material that works as efficient photocatalyst and as redox 

material for flexible supercapacitors (SCs). Ni incorporation induces lattice distortions that create oxygen vacancies, which 

act as active sites for charge storage or for the degradation of contaminants. Firstly, SCs were fabricated with graphene 

(G) electrodes printed on flexible polyethylene and those electrodes were coated with MnBi or MnNiBi powders. The 

G/MnNiBi-SC device (made with electrodes of G+MnNiBi) showed a capacitance of 810 F g−1

, high energy density 

of 165 Wh kg−1

, and high capacitance retention (94%) after 1000 charging-discharging cycles. Also, a device was made 

with MnBi powder (without Ni dopant), but the capacitance and energy density decreased to 155 F g−1

 and 48 Wh kg−1

respectively. Thus, the presence of Ni in the redox powder increased the capacitance by 422%. Moreover, MnNiBi powder

produced high photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB, 93%) and glyphosate (75%) under direct sunlight, 

which was superior to the degradation percentages obtained with undoped MnBi (57–70%). Interestingly, the degradation 

% increased to 98% and to 92% for MB and glyphosate, respectively, under UV-light. Moreover, total organic carbon 

measurements indicated mineralization efficiencies of 75% for MB and 58% for glyphosate. XPS studies showed that 

oxygen vacancies defects increased ⁓225% after the use of the MnNiBi powder for photocatalysis, which accelerated the 

degradation of contaminants. These defects were also crucial for supercapacitors, because they worked as redox centers 

to store charge. Thus, multifunction MnNiBi powders were used for charge-storage/water-cleaning

The Korean Institute of Chemical Engineers. F5,119, Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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