Wood Pulp‐Based Optically Transparent Film: A Paradigm from Nanofibers to Nanostructured Fibers

Abstract

A low thermally expanded transparent film is developed by exploiting wood fibers that can be considered to be nanostructured fibers in which individual nanofibers do not significantly agglomerate and are oriented parallel to the fiber direction. It is thereby demonstrated that paper, used since ancient times, will be a next‐generation optical material.

Large‐Size Transparent Wood for Energy‐Saving Building Applications

“…[24] Figure 1( the image at the lower right corner) illustrates the transparent wood prepared by infiltrating PMMA into intact delignified wood, which displayed extraordinaryt ransparency in the case of at hickness of 1.5 mm or less, as previously described. [10,15] In contrast, the difficulty of infiltration of individual fibers with PMMA is not related to woodd ensity,a nd the fiber content of transparentf iber wood can be controlled.F igure 2c showst he transmittanceo ft ransparent fiber woodw ith different cellulose contents. The transparent fiber wood (1 mm thick) has av ery high light transmittancea ss hown in Figure 1.…”

“…[1][2][3] Sustainable materials become ap riority on the list of world interests as part of the solution to replacet he non-renewable materials to moderate the environmental impact. [7][8][9][10] To address the issue of energy shortage, it is highly desired to reduce the energy consumption of residential and commercial buildings, because they account for over 50 %o ft he total energy consumption. However,t he intrinsic properties of wood, including low corrosion resistance, poor mechanical performance, flammability,n on-transparency, and non-thermal conductivity,have limited its applicationsinthe building indus-try.…”

“…[4][5][6] With the development of new manufacturing technologies, wood has been transformed into multifunctional materials, expanding its applications to somee merging areas, such as environmental protection, energy saving, biomedicine, and optical products. [7][8][9][10] To address the issue of energy shortage, it is highly desired to reduce the energy consumption of residential and commercial buildings, because they account for over 50 %o ft he total energy consumption. [11] Recently,d ifferent types of cellulose from various sourcesw eret ested to prepare transparent materials, such as bacterial or tunicate.…”

Optically Transparent Cellulose Nanofiber-Based Materials

“…The disintegration of pulp to obtain nanofibrils, subsequent chemical modification, and preparation of composites are costly, hindering the industrialization of cellulose nanocomposites [13]. Hence, encouraged by the transparent crab powder sheet, the preparation of optically transparent pulp fiber composites was studied.…”

Transparent and flexible cellulose nanofibers/silver nanowires/acrylic resin composite electrode

“…On the other hand, acrylic resin was selected as the matrix because of its high optical transparency. The refractive index of cellulose nanofiber is 1.618 along the fiber and 1.544 in the transverse direction, and that of impregnated acrylic resin is 1.536 [19][20][21]. Compared with a AgNWs film on a bare CNFs substrate, three improvements were significantly observed in respect of regular transmittance, electrical stability, and surface roughness.…”