Transparent and flexible MXene-chitosan nanocomposite film for effective UV and high-energy blue light shielding applications

Abstract

Facile, flexible and highly transparent nanocomposite films were synthesized via a solution casting approach by incorporating MXene nanoparticles into chitosan (CS) films and exhibited excellent UV and high-energy blue light absorbing ability. The prepared composite (CMX) films were characterized via ATR-FTIR, X-ray diffraction (XRD), FESEM, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) analysis. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and FESEM results confirmed that the MXene nanoparticles were uniformly distributed throughout the chitosan film, with strong hydrogen and static bonds formed between the two, while TGA and DTG data confirmed the thermal stability of the composite films. The moisture content (MC), water solubility (WS) index and water swelling (W) of the composite films were thoroughly monitored to investigate the efficiency of the films. CMX-0.04 composite films exhibited improved UV blocking performance: 99.55% of UV-A (320–400) nm, 100% of UV-B (280–320) nm, and 100% of UV-C (200–280) nm. Additionally, this film demonstrated exceptional absorption capabilities around 97.48% within the range of high-energy blue light (HEBL) (400–450 nm) radiation. Furthermore, addition of MXene nanoparticles in the CS film showed enhanced mechanical properties (tensile strength and Young's modulus of 80.09 ± 1.13 MPa and 19.72 ± 1.401 MPa, which was 303% and 830% higher than those of the pure CS film, respectively) with excellent film flexibility. This work offers a method to develop a composite film based on CS and MXenes, which has a lot of potential for expanding real-world applications in UV and HEBL blocking.