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Nanocellulose, which can be derived from any cellulosic biomass, has emerged as an appealing nanoscale scaffold to develop inorganic–organic nanocomposites for a wide range of applications. In this study, titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanocrystals were synthesized in the cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) scaffold using a simple approach, i.e. , hydrolysis of a titanium oxysulfate precursor in a CNC suspension at low temperature. The resulting TiO 2 nanoparticles exhibited a narrow size range between 3 and 5 nm, uniformly distributed on and strongly adhered to the CNC surface. The structure of the resulting nanocomposite was evaluated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. The growth mechanism of TiO 2 nanocrystals in the CNC scaffold was also investigated by solution small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), where the results suggested the mineralization process could be described by the Lifshitz–Slyozov–Wagner theory for Ostwald ripening. The demonstrated TiO 2 /CNC nanocomposite system exhibited excellent performance in dye degradation and antibacterial activity, suitable for a wide range of environmental remediation applications. 

Cellulose is a natural polymer that is widely used in daily life, but it is susceptible to microorganism growth. In this study, a simple sol–gel technique was utilized to incorporate the cellulose scaffold with Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles. The morphology and crystal structure of the as-prepared Ag/TiO2/cellulose composite film were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. Antibacterial tests involving the use of Escherichia coli (E. coli) were carried out under dark and UV-light conditions to evaluate the efficiency of the Ag/TiO2/cellulose composite film in comparison with pristine cellulose paper and TiO2/cellulose composite film. The results indicated that the antibacterial activity of the Ag/TiO2/cellulose composite film outperformed all other samples, where the Ag content of 0.030 wt% could inhibit more than 99% of E. coli. This study suggests that finely dispersed nanocale Ag/TiO2 particles in the cellulose scaffold were effective at slowing down bacterial growth, and the mechanisms of this are also discussed.