• Isolation of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) derived from Gigantochloa scortechinii bamboo fiber and deposited onto Ag 2 CO 3 particles. • MCC-supported Ag 2 CO 3 exhibited the outstanding photocatalytic removal of paracetamol with rate of 9.4 × 10 -3 min -1 . • The stability of MCC-supported Ag 2 CO 3 was retained up to five consecutive cycles and h vb + was the primary species identified. • A DFT study was used to compute the electronic structures of Ag 2 CO 3 , and MCC-Ag 2 CO 3 composite photocatalyst. This study describes the facile fabrication of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) from Gigantochloa scortechinii bamboo fibres serving as an electron mediator for Ag 2 CO 3 photocatalyst. Comprehensive characterization techniques were used to illustrate the successful integration of Ag 2 CO 3 onto MCC surfaces. The SEM images revealed homogeneous distribution of tiny rod-shaped Ag 2 CO 3 nanoparticles on MCC’s surfaces. Moreover, XRD verified phase-pure Ag 2 CO 3 with crystallinity >70%, while the PL spectroscopy demonstrated suppressed emission intensity for MCC-Ag 2 CO 3 and band gap narrowed from 2.8 to 2.6 eV. As shown by the band gap and PL analyses, the enhanced performance was ascribed to the remarkable rapid separation of electron and holes charge carriers, ease of electron migration, while highlighting the presence of MCC as electron mediators in the composite photocatalyst. The paracetamol (PCM) was used as targeted pollutant for the photocatalytic evaluations assisted by a relatively low UVC light intensity (9 W). With a rate constant of 9.4 × 10 −3 min −1 , which was 1.5 times higher than that of pure Ag 2 CO 3 , the MCC-Ag 2 CO 3 reached a notable 82% percentage of degradation under normal conditions. From DFT calculation, the MCC-Ag 2 CO 3 shows orbital hybridization, reducing band gap and recombination while boosting charge separation via conductive channels and localized mid-gap states. The reactivity was dominated by photogenerated holes, followed by superoxide radical anions and hydroxyl radicals (h vb + > •O 2 − > •OH) and the degradation was sustained with >50% efficiency over five consecutive cycles.
Sazman et al. (Wed,) studied this question.