Preparation of sustainable oxidized nanocellulose films with high UV shielding effect, high transparency and high strength

• Published in: International journal of biological macromolecules 2024-04, Vol.263 (Pt 2), p.130087-130087, Article 130087
• Main Authors: Huang, Xuanxuan, Huang, Rui, Zhang, Qian, Fan, Jinlong, Zhang, Zhaohong, Huang, Jintian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomass films; Cellulose; Cellulose, Oxidized; High strength; High transparency; Nanocellulose; Packaging materials; Tensile Strength; UV shielding
• ISSN: 0141-8130; 1879-0003
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.130087

UV protection has become crucial as increasing environmental pollution has led to the destruction of the ozone layer, which has a weakened ability to block UV rays. In this paper, we successfully prepared cellulose-based biomass films with high UV shielding effect, high transparency and high tensile strength by graft-modifying oxidized cellulose nanocellulose (TOCN) with folic acid (FA) and borrowing vacuum-assisted filtration. The films had tunable UV shielding properties depending on the amount of FA added. When the FA addition was 20 % (V/V), the film showed 0 % transmittance in the UV region (200–400 nm) and 90.61 % transmittance in the visible region (600 nm), while the tensile strength was up to 150.04 MPa. This study provides a new integrated process for the value-added utilization of nanocellulose and a new route for the production of functional biomass packaging materials. The film is expected to be applied in the field of food packaging with UV shielding.