Cross-linked cellulose membranes with robust mechanical property, self-adaptive breathability, and excellent biocompatibility

High performance breathable bio-based membranes have attracted considerable attention worldwide due to the limited fossil energy resources and the demand of sustainable development. As the most abundant polysaccharide, cellulose is an almost inexhaustible raw material with hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and chemical modifying capacity, etc. which has been demonstrated versatile applications. Herein, cellulose membranes (CEMs) with mechanically strong property, self-adaptive breathability, and excellent biocompatibility were fabricated by a green technology. The obtained CEMs exhibited an increased integrated mechanical property with the broken strength and broken elongation improved from 54.2 to 137.4 MPa, and 4.7% to 18.3%, respectively. Moreover, obtained cellulose membranes exhibited self-adaptive breathability with varying temperature & relative humidity (RH), and the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of CEMs were much better than some famous commercial products, such as 3M-Nex...