Efficient Heat Shielding and Ultraviolet Isolating Transparent Wood via In Situ Generation of TiO₂ Nanoparticles

Abstract

As a new energy-saving building material, optically transparent wood (TW) shows great application potential due to its performance in high light transmittance, high haze, and excellent thermal insulation properties. Herein, a dual functional TW with strong ultraviolet (UV) protection and good thermal insulation properties has been prepared by in situ generation of uniformly dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles in epoxy resin. As is known, TiO2 is generally a wide-band-gap semiconductor with high sensitivity to UV light. As expected, the UV transmittance of the obtained TW-3 containing TiO2 is only 20% for UV light of 250–400 nm. More importantly, this dual-functional TW-3 possesses a lower thermal conductivity (0.3228 W/mK). These performances are significantly better than that of traditional glass. In addition, the as-prepared bifunctional TW-3 also exhibits high light transmittance (90%) and haze (90%), which results in a higher transmission efficiency and more vital privacy than conventional glass. This work provides a new method to design a high-performance wood-based material for green and energy-saving thermal insulation windows.

Powering the Future Green Buildings: Multifunctional Ultraviolet-Shielding Transparent Wood

“…The simultaneous achievement of 99.6% UVA block and 83.2% visible transmission represents a groundbreaking feat for TW, surpassing previous findings (Figure S13 and Table S5). ,,– Moreover, Ce-ZnO NRDs@TW demonstrates greater competitiveness across these two metrics when compared with existing UV-shielding materials, as outlined in Table S6. Examples include inorganic materials like ZnO/hydroxyethyl cellulose and Ca 0.2 Zn 0.8 O/PVA nanocomposite films, , as well as organic materials like PVA/solid dopamine-melanin nanoparticles nanocomposite films and poly(butylene adipate- co -terephthalate)/lignin–melanin nanoparticle composites. , When the Ce-ZnO NRDs@TW sample is positioned on an electronic display, the underlying patterns remain visibly discernible (see the insets of Figure a), indicating excellent transparency.…”

“…By contrast, due to the introduction of PMMA and microparticles, Ce-ZnO NRD 0.5 @TW has a notably higher tensile strength in the L direction (119.6 ± 6.0 MPa) and T direction (35.5 ± 3.9 MPa). Although the tensile strength of glass (∼165 MPa) [47] surpasses that of Ce-ZnO NRD 0.5 @TW, it has a tendency to experience abrupt failure when subjected to a load and has limited strain (only 0.004%). Besides, Ce-ZnO NRD 0.5 @TW exhibits significantly greater strain, measuring at 2.80 ± 0.27% and 2.11 ± 0.35% in the L and R directions, almost surpassing that of standard soda-lime glass by 3 orders of magnitude.…”

Thermal-Driven Self-Healing Polyurethane Based on Polydopamine Nanoparticles with Enhanced Mechanical and UV Shielding Properties

“…In recent years, polymer-based UV shielding materials have received a great deal of attention and have been widely used in the fields of bioprotection, aerospace, and smart coatings due to their excellent performance and good mechanical properties 3,4 In previous studies, the incorporation of UV shielding agents into a polymer matrix was a simple and effective method to prepare UV shielding composites. 5,6 Typical UV shielding agents include metal oxides, like titanium dioxide, 7,8 zinc oxide, 9 and cerium dioxide. 10 These materials realize the UV shielding function by reflecting and scattering UV light because of their broadband gaps.…”

“…In previous studies, the incorporation of UV shielding agents into a polymer matrix was a simple and effective method to prepare UV shielding composites. , Typical UV shielding agents include metal oxides, like titanium dioxide, , zinc oxide, and cerium dioxide . These materials realize the UV shielding function by reflecting and scattering UV light because of their broadband gaps.…”

Wood-based Transparent Luminescent Materials

“…Wood is one of the most abundant biomaterials on the planet and has attracted signi cant interest in advanced materials and manufacturing due to its inherent chemo-physical and mechanical properties [3][4][5] . In recent years, composite modi cation strategies have been developed to reconstitute natural wood (NW) by removing and/or adding components from the porous scaffold, resulting in wood-based materials with enhanced properties and novel functions for a variety of applications [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . In particular, wood composites with excellent optical transparency can be prepared by combining deligni cation -the process of removing lignin from natural wood -with a strategy of in ltrating polymers with a refractive index matching that of the wood substrate [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] , or by compressing deligni ed wood into dense lms [29][30][31][32] .…”