Cellulose nanocrystals doped silver nanoparticles immobilized agar gum for efficient photocatalytic degradation of malachite green.

The present study involves the synthesis of green functional material based on the silver nanoparticle (Ag NPs) doped cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) immobilized agar gum (AA) biopolymer using chemical coprecipitation method. The stabilization of Ag NPs in cellulose matrix and functionalization of the synthesized material through agar gum was analyzed using various spectroscopic techniques such as Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy X-Ray diffraction (EDX), Photoelectron X-ray (XPS), Transmission electron microscope (TEM), Selected area energy diffraction (SAED) and ultraviolet visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. The XRD results suggested that the synthesized AA-CNC@Ag BNC material is composed of 47 % crystalline and 53 % amorphous nature having distorted hexagonal structure due to capping of Ag NPs by amorphous biopolymer matrix. The Debye-Scherer crystallite sized was calculated as 18 nm which is found in close agreement with TEM analysis (19 nm). The SAED yellow fringes simulates the miller indices values with XRD patterns and supported the surface functionalization of Ag NPs by biopolymer blend of AA-CNC. The XPS data supported the presence of Ag as indexed by Ag3d orbital corresponding to Ag3d at 372.6 eV and Ag3d at 366.6 eV. The surface morphological results revealed a flaky surface of the resultant material having well distributed Ag NPs in the matrix. The EDX and atomic concentration results given by XPS supported the presence if C, O and Ag in the bionanocomposite material. The UV-Vis results suggested that the material is both UV and visible light active having multiple SPR effects with anisotropy. The material was explored as a photocatalyst for remediation of wastewater contaminated by malachite green (MG) using advance oxidation process (AOP). Photocatalytic experiments were performed in order to optimize various reaction parameters such as irradiation time, pH, catalyst dose and MG concentration. The obtained results showed that almost 98.85 % of MG was degraded by using 20 mg of catalyst at pH 9 for 60 min of irradiation. The trapping experiments revealed that O radicals played primary role in MG degradation. This study will provide new possible strategies for the remediation of wastewater contaminated by MG.