Transparent cellulose-lignin films containing Fe3+ with high UV absorption for thermal management

Xin Fu; Jianmin Peng; Xueren Qian

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.139475

Transparent cellulose-lignin films containing Fe³⁺ with high UV absorption for thermal management

Int J Biol Macromol. 2025 Jan 5:139475. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.139475. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xin Fu¹, Jianmin Peng¹, Xueren Qian²

Affiliations

¹ Research Division for Sustainable Papermaking & Advanced Materials, Key Laboratory of Biobased Materials Science and Technology (Ministry of Education), Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China.
² Research Division for Sustainable Papermaking & Advanced Materials, Key Laboratory of Biobased Materials Science and Technology (Ministry of Education), Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China. Electronic address: qianxueren@aliyun.com.

PMID: 39765295
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.139475

Abstract

In this paper, cellulose-lignin films containing Fe³⁺ were prepared by the codissolution-precipitation method, and the films have high transparency as well as high UV absorption. In this process, kraft lignin chelates with Fe³⁺ and then bonds with cellulose through hydrogen bonding, evenly distributing within the film. The morphological results showed that the kraft lignin chelated with Fe³⁺ bound tightly linked to cellulose within the Fe@cellulose-lignin composite films. The addition of Fe³⁺ made the composite film (C-Fe_-0.7-L) maintain a high transmittance of 66.9 % at 600 nm with excellent UV absorption. Excellent UV absorption performance, completely shielded from both Ultraviolet A (UVA), Ultraviolet B (UVB), and Ultraviolet C (UVC), and improved the thermal stability of the film. Under 100 mW cm^-2 solar irradiation, the temperature of C-Fe_-0.7-L rose rapidly to 60.7 °C. Based on this property, solar energy is transformed into kinetic energy, which realizes the photothermal conversion of solar energy. This work realizes the use of transparent films for energy utilization.

Keywords: Cellulose-lignin films; Iron ions; Thermal management; Transparent films; UV-absorption.