{
  "abstract": "Metal chalcogenides with enhanced electrochemical and electrical properties are promising next-generation supercapacitor electrodes. Cu-, Mn-, and Cu–Mn-doped and pristine AgInS2 nanoparticles have been synthesized through a simple and low-cost hydrothermal route. Herein, we demonstrate for the first time a direct correlation between dual-dopant synergy and the defect landscape and charge-transfer pathways of an AgInS2 lattice (I–III–VI2) that tolerates cation substitution without structural degradation. The structural analysis shows that both pristine and doped samples form a mixed orthorhombic/tetragonal AgInS2 framework with orthorhombic phase dominance, whereas doping reduces the crystallite size from ∼25 nm to ∼14, ∼9, and ∼18 nm for Cu-, Mn-, and Cu–Mn-doped samples, consistent with the SEM particle-size reduction from 40–55 nm in pristine AgInS2. Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) verify the Ag–S and S–S vibrational modes and the Ag+, In3+ and S2− chemical states of the host lattice, with Cu and Mn incorporated as Cu+ and Mn2+. UV-vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy indicate that doping modifies the electronic structure and defect landscape: the optical band gap varies from 3.52 eV to 3.50, 3.55 and 3.40 eV for the Cu-, Mn- and Cu–Mn-doped samples, while broad defect-related emission over 500–900 nm confirms intrinsic and dopant-induced defect states opening multiple charge-transfer pathways. The specific capacitance increases from 72.3 to 96.7, 129.8 and 189.27 F g−1 for the pristine and Cu-, Mn- and Cu–Mn-doped electrodes at 5 mV s−1, the capacitive contribution increases from 0.41% to 10.41%, 13.54% and 19.85%, and the charge-transfer resistance decreases from 1.652 Ω to 1.3, 1.22, and 0.693 Ω, with b-values of 0.5–0.69 indicating a hybrid diffusion and capacitive-controlled charge-storage mechanism. The improved performance of the co-doped electrode is ascribed to the synergistic effect of Cu and Mn, which enhances the accessibility of electroactive sites, interfacial charge transfer, and ion transportation, indicating that Cu–Mn co-doping is a promising strategy for defect and composition engineering of high-performance AgInS2-based supercapacitor electrodes.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Physics, COMSATS University Islamabad Lahore Campus 54000 Pakistan",
    "State Key Laboratory of Advanced Papermaking & Paper-based Materials, South China University of Technology Guangzhou 510640 China"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 9,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Faiza Mustafa"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Aneeqa Masood",
      "orcid": "0009-0006-5254-5506"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Waris Ali"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ume Zainab"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ayesha Iram"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Sameen Ilyas"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Zhouyang Xiang",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1840-9237"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ishrat Sultana"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Aamir Razaq",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3855-8264"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ep4dqmqdzbr79.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1039/d6ra09800b",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13690256/?tool=EBI",
  "id": "ep4dqmqdzbr79",
  "issns": [
    "2046-2069"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13690256",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Chemistry"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2208|Chalcogenide Semiconductor Thin Films"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223201945",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13690256/pdf/?tool=EBI",
  "pmcid": "PMC13690256",
  "pmid": "42923835",
  "published": "2026-10-22",
  "publisher": "Royal Society of Chemistry",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ep4dqmqdzbr79.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:00Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13690256",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13690256"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-07T12:23:38Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13690256",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1039/d6ra09800b"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "heading:Chemistry",
      "subfield": "general"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Tuning of defect-mediated AgInS2-based chalcogenides for highly efficient electroactive energy storage electrodes",
  "title_text": "Tuning of defect-mediated AgInS2-based chalcogenides for highly efficient electroactive energy storage electrodes",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-08T12:21:07Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ep4dqmqdzbr79",
  "venue": "RSC advances",
  "versions": []
}