Plastic waste has caused great harm to the ecological environment and a great threat to human health. The development of a new generation of sustainable plastic alternative materials is imminent. Hay Think learned from the University of Science and Technology of China that the team of academician Yu Shuhong of the school successfully developed a super-strong, super-tough, transparent high-performance sustainable shell-like composite film, and successfully constructed a "brick-fiber" shell-like layered structure. The film exhibits mechanical properties far exceeding that of traditional plastics, and exhibits more outstanding comprehensive properties than plastic films. The research results are listed on the "Substance" a few days ago.
According to reports, this high-transparency and high-haze film benefits from the dense shell-like "brick-fiber" structure. The pores inside the film are filled to ensure the light transmission effect, and the optical haze is ensured by the interface scattering of nanosheets and cellulose. Thus, it can achieve high transparency of more than 73% and high optical haze of more than 80% at the same time in the visible spectrum wavelength range of 370-780 nanometers. At the same time, the film also has excellent properties of high strength and high toughness, which are 6 times and 3 times more than commercial PET plastic films. In addition, the three-dimensional network of nanofibers and the "brick-fiber" shell-like structure design can effectively inhibit crack propagation. At the same time, the fiber thinning effect can increase the hydrogen bond density between fibers in the material and promote fiber slip during film stretching, thereby Make the material have both high strength and high toughness. As a bio-based sustainable material, the biomimetic film also has excellent thermal stability. When the temperature changes by 100°C, the size change is only three ten thousandths, which is one tenth of the commercial plastic film. Moreover, the film can still maintain stable structure and performance under 250, and has better service performance than plastic film in extreme environments.
The researchers said that this bionic film material integrates excellent optical, mechanical and thermal properties, and can be completely biodegradable under natural conditions, overcomes the problem of difficult degradation of waste plastics, and meets the requirements of optical transparency, While flexibility, low cost, and dimensional stability at high and low temperatures are required, the whole life cycle is green and pollution-free, and it will have broad application prospects in the field of flexible electronic devices in the future.