A promising transparent and UV-shielding composite film prepared by aramid nanofibers and nanofibrillated cellulose

Abstract An aramid nanofibers (ANFs)-functionalized nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) composite film is effectively fabricated by the incorporation of ANFs into nanocellulose matrix. The fabrication of the composite film imitates the traditional paper-making process after homogenous mixing. The as-prepared composite film shows excellent UV-shielding performance due to the incorporation of ANFs. Thus the effect of ANFs contents is evaluated in aspects of the surface morphology, physicochemical properties including crystallinity, chemical structure and photothermal stability of composite film. Results show that the composite film with 2 wt. % of ANFs has improved mechanical properties, surface wettability compared to pure NFC film, and presents excellent UV-shielding performance ranging up to 400 nm while still retaining its high transparency. Moreover, the composite film shows high photostability even after continuous UV irradiation (365 nm) for over 12 h. The findings in the present work indicate that the ANFs-functionalized NFC composite films are promising as UV-shielding and transparent materials.