Highly transparent, hydrophobic, and durable anisotropic cellulose films as electronic screen protectors

Qianqian Chen; Daofa Ying; Yiwen Chen; Hongxia Xie; Huaran Zhang; Chunyu Chang

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.120735

Highly transparent, hydrophobic, and durable anisotropic cellulose films as electronic screen protectors

Carbohydr Polym. 2023 Jul 1:311:120735. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.120735. Epub 2023 Mar 8.

Authors

Qianqian Chen¹, Daofa Ying¹, Yiwen Chen², Hongxia Xie¹, Huaran Zhang¹, Chunyu Chang³

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Engineering Research Center of Natural Polymer-based Medical Materials in Hubei Province, Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
² Zhongnan Hospital, Institute of Hepatobiliary Diseases, Transplant Center and Hubei Key Laboratory of Medical Technology on Transplantation, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
³ College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Engineering Research Center of Natural Polymer-based Medical Materials in Hubei Province, Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China. Electronic address: changcy@whu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37028870
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.120735

Abstract

Cellulose films have attracted extensive interest in the field of burgeoning electronic devices. However, it remains a challenge to simultaneously address the difficulties including facile methodology, hydrophobicity, optical transparency, and mechanical robustness. Herein, we reported a coating-annealing approach to fabricate highly transparent, hydrophobic, and durable anisotropic cellulose films, where poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(trifluoroethyl methacrylate) (PMMA-b-PTFEMA) as low surface energy chemicals was coated onto regenerated cellulose films via physical (hydrogen bonds) and chemical (transesterification) interactions. The resultant films with nano-protrusions and low surface roughness exhibited high optical transparency (92.3 %, 550 nm) and good hydrophobicity. Moreover, the tensile strength of the hydrophobic films was 198.7 MPa and 124 MPa in dry and wet states, respectively, which also showed excellent stability and durability under various conditions, such as hot water, chemicals, liquid foods, tape peeling, finger pressing, sandpaper abrasion, ultrasonic treatment, and water jet. This work provided a promising large-scale production strategy for the preparation of transparent and hydrophobic cellulose-based films for electronic device protection as well as other emerging flexible electronics.

Keywords: 1,4-Dioxane (AR, PubChem CID: 31275); 2,2,2-Trifluoroethyl methacrylate (TFEMA, AR, PubChem CID: 9608); 2,2′-Azobis(2-methylpropionitrile) (AIBN, AR, PubChem CID: 6547); Cellulose film; Durable; Epichlorohydrin (EPI, AR, PubChem CID: 7835); High-strength; Hydrophobic; Lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LiOH⋅H(2)O, AR, PubChem CID: 168937); Methyl methacrylate (MMA, GC, PubChem CID: 6658); S-(Thiobenzoyl)thioglycolic acid (TA, AR, PubChem CID: 70336); Sulfuric acid (H(2)SO(4), GR, PubChem CID: 1118); Transparent; Urea (AR, PubChem CID: 1176); n-Hexane (AR, PubChem CID: 8058).