Highly Transparent, UV-Shielding, and Water-Resistant Lignocellulose Nanopaper from Agro-Industrial Waste for Green Optoelectronics

Abstract

Lignocellulosic-biomass-derived transparent nanopaper is an emerging substrate or functional component for next-generation green optoelectronics. The fabrication of such transparent nanopaper typically needs the delignification of lignocellulose; however, delignification not only is environmentally unfriendly but also impairs the nanopaper properties such as water stability and UV-shielding capacity. In this study, we present a green and facile lignin modification method instead of delignification to fabricate transparent nanopaper from agro-industrial waste with the combined intriguing properties of lignin and cellulose. Because lignin modification selectively removes chromophores without affecting the bulk lignocellulosic structures, the as-prepared lignocellulose nanopaper (LNP) achieved a comparable optical transmittance (∼90%) but superior UV-blocking ability and haze (∼46%) compared with previously reported cellulose (or delignified) nanopaper. The well-preserved lignin structures endowed the transparent LNP with a low surface energy and a small mesoporous size and volume. In addition to a high thermal stability, the transparent LNP exhibited excellent water stability, evidenced by an up to 103° initial water contact angle, a low equilibrium water absorption (<60 wt %), and a high wet mechanical strength (nearly 40% tensile strength and 92% toughness retained in the wet state). Furthermore, we fabricated a GaAs solar cell with the transparent LNP as an advanced light-management layer that leads to significantly improved power conversion efficiency, even under damp conditions. This work sheds light on the conversion of agro-industrial waste to nanopaper with desirable performances for optoelectronics and brings us a step closer toward the scalable production and application of LNP.

Assessment of Bleached and Unbleached Nanofibers from Pistachio Shells for Nanopaper Making

“…In contrast, for ε, the ranges are more homogeneous in the case of OT and B2, but also more symmetric in the case of B1, with the only remarkable aspect being the upper maximum, which was considerably higher, but this can be attributed to an isolated outlier. Tensile strength and strain at fracture are lower than values reported by other authors for lignocellulose nanopapers, in which these values range between 90 and 130 MPa for σ and between 1 and 6.5% for ε [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]. In the present work, the overall range of σ was between ≈17 and ≈63 MPa, while the ε was between 0.5 and 5%; in previous works, it has been stated that the preparation method might influence the mechanical properties of nanocellulose-based films [ 31 , 32 ].…”

Flexible organic optoelectronic devices on paper

“…Jiang et al. characterized nanopaper composited by different methods ( Jiang et al., 2020 ). The small size of the lignocellulose nanofibrils coupled with the cementing effect of lignin results in the highly dense structure of lignocellulose nanopapers.…”

Removing Calcium Ions from Remelt Syrup with Rosin-Based Macroporous Cationic Resin

“…RMCRs began to decompose at 220 °C due to the decomposition of rosin [18]. The onset temperature for RMCRs decomposition was approximately 220 [19]. The apparent weight loss of RMCR mainly occurred at temperatures ranging from 300 to 450 °C.…”