Abstract
The creation of sustainable energy via the photocatalytic reduction of CO
2
has been emerged as an eco-friendly track to create sustainable energy. In this work, we have prepared ZnMn
2
O
4
nanoparticles that more reactive to the irradiation using visible light via silver doping. The ZnMn
2
O
4
and Ag/ZnMn
2
O
4
samples were tested for the production of methanol from the reduction of carbon dioxide. The surface texture and visible light absorption of ZnMn
2
O
4
photocatalysts were improved via silver doping of the ZnMn
2
O
4
sample. The band gap of ZnMn
2
O
4
samples was reduced from 2.12 to 1.71 eV via silver doping of the ZnMn
2
O
4
sample with 4.0 wt% of silver. The 3.0 Ag/ZnMn
2
O
4
sample has 1100 μmol/g production of methanol within 9 h and 2.5 g/L dose of the photocatalyst. The high performance of Ag/ZnMn
2
O
4
photocatalyst is due to the presence of silver, which retard
e
–
h
recombination rate and reduced band gap energy of ZnMn
2
O
4
sample.