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Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl is an additive in some unleaded gasoline to boost octane rating and reduce engine knocking.

Manganese(IV) oxide (manganese dioxide, MnO) is used as a reagent in organic chemistry for the oxidation of benzylic alcohols (where the hydroxyl group is adjacent to an aromatic ring). Manganese dioxide has been used since antiquity to oxidize and neutralize the greenish tinge in glass from trace amounts of iron contamination. MnO is also used in the manufacture of oxygen and chlorine and in drying black paints. In some preparations, it is a brown pigment for paint and is a constituent of natural umber.

Tetravalent manganese is used as an activator in red-emitting phosphors. While many compounds are known which show luminescence, the majority are not used in commercial application due to low efficiency or deep red emission. However, several Mn activated fluorides were reported as potential red-emitting phosphors for warm-white LEDs. But to this day, only K SiF:Mn is commercially available for use in warm-white LEDs.

The metal is occasionally used in coins; until 2000, the only United States coin to use manganese was the "wartime" nickel from 1942 to 1945. An alloy of 75% copper and 25% nickel was traditionally used for the production of nickel coins. However, because of shortage of nickel metal during the war, it was substituted by more available silver and manganese, thus resulting in an alloy of 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese. Since 2000, dollar coins, for example the Sacagawea dollar and the Presidential $1 coins, are made from a brass containing 7% of manganese with a pure copper core. In both cases of nickel and dollar, the use of manganese in the coin was to duplicate the electromagnetic properties of a previous identically sized and valued coin in the mechanisms of vending machines. In the case of the later U.S. dollar coins, the manganese alloy was intended to duplicate the properties of the copper/nickel alloy used in the previous Susan B. Anthony dollar.

Manganese compounds have been used as pigments and for the coloring of ceramics and glass. The brown color of ceramic is sometimes the result of manganese compounds. In the glass industry, manganese compounds are used for two effects. Manganese(III) reacts with iron(II) to reduce strong green color in glass by forming less-colored iron(III) and slightly pink manganese(II), compensating for the residual color of the iron(III). Larger quantities of manganese are used to produce pink colored glass. In 2009, Mas Subramanian and associates at Oregon State University discovered that manganese can be combined with yttrium and indium to form an intensely blue, non-toxic, inert, fade-resistant pigment, YInMn Blue, the first new blue pigment discovered in 200 years.