Transparent Montmorillonite/cellulose Nanofibril Nanocomposite Films: the Influence of Exfoliation Degree and Interfacial Interaction

To obtain high performance of nanocomposite films made of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) and montmorillonites (MMTs), highly ordered nanostructures and abundant interfacial interactions are of extreme importance, especially for CNF film with high MMT content. Here, we tend to unveil the influence of exfoliation degree of MMTs and their interfacial interactions with CNFs on the properties of ensuing nanocomposite films. Monolayer MMTs prefer to form highly ordered nanostructure during water evaporation induced self-assembly. The obtained nanocomposite film with 30 wt% monolayer MMTs exhibits a tensile strength of 132 MPa, a total light transmittance of 90.2% (550nm), and water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of 41.5 g•mm/m2•day, better than the film made of original bulk MMTs and CNFs (30 MPa strength, 60% transparency, and 78.7 g•mm/m2•day WVTR). Moreover, the physical properties (153 MPa strength and 20.9 g•mm/m2•day WVTR) of nanocomposite film can be further enhanced by constructing ionic interactions between the monolayer MMT and CNF using 0.5 wt% cationic polyethylenimine (PEI). However, as the amount of PEI continues to increase, its performance will be deteriorated dramatically because of the disordered orientation of monolayer MMTs. This work could provide an insight into the fabrication of high performance MMT/CNF nanocomposite film for advanced applications.

Lignin–Cellulose Nanocrystals from Hemp Hurd as Light-Coloured Ultraviolet (UV) Functional Filler for Enhanced Performance of Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanocomposite Films

Lignin is a natural light-coloured ultraviolet (UV) absorber; however, conventional extraction processes usually darken its colour and could be detrimental to its UV-shielding ability. In this study, a sustainable way of fabricating lignin–cellulose nanocrystals (L-CNCs) from hemp hurd is proposed. A homogeneous morphology of the hemp particles was achieved by ball milling, and L-CNCs with high aspect ratio were obtained through mild acid hydrolysis on the ball-milled particles. The L-CNCs were used as filler in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film, which produced a light-coloured nanocomposite film with high UV-shielding ability and enhanced tensile properties: the absorption of UV at wavelength of 400 nm and transparency in the visible-light region at wavelength of 550 nm was 116 times and 70% higher than that of pure PVA, respectively. In addition to these advantages, the nanocomposite film showed a water vapour transmission property comparable with commercial food package film, indicating potential applications.

Titanium Dioxide Loaded Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite Film as Counter Electrodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

The demands on conventional fossil fuels are increasing especially developing countries. The growth of population among countries also put a lot of pressure on coil consumption and resulted effect of greenhouse. These phenomena will dramatically increase the global warming and pollutes the nature of earth. For the worse, it would forming some erratic patterns like flood, draughts, wildfire, and so on. Therefore, renewable solar energy is the key target to reduce the fossil fuel consumption, minimize global warming issues, and involuntary minimizes the erratic weather patterns. Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSCs) is one of the promising prospects for efficient renewable resources. Most of the researchers were tried to use platinum as counter electrode to perform the photovoltaic studies. However, the platinum material will made higher for the entire fabrication cost. Recently, we demonstrated a counter electrode in DSSCs system using the low-cost titanium dioxide (TiO2) decorated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite film. The TiO2-rGO nanocomposite (TiO2-rGO NC) as counter electrode is addressed to minimize electron losses and hence rapid the rate of dye regeneration at ground state. Practically, TiO2-rGO NC synthesized via one-step hydrothermal method. The crystallinity, functional groups, element composition, and morphology of TiO2-rGO NC were comprehensively studied. One-step hydrothermal method revealed that Ti particles (∼60 nm) have capable bonded with rGO thin film, as agreement with XRD and FTIR results. In DSSCs photovoltaic performance, the optimized power conversion energy (PCE) of TiO2-rGO NC as counter electrode achieved a 2.90%, which achieved a desire performance as comparable with rGO and TiO2. In this work, the low-cost TiO2-rGO NC as counter electrode with suppressed recombination in DSSCs is studied.