Transparent and shape-memory cellulose paper reinforced by vitrimer polymer for efficient light management and sustainability

The functional paper holds significant potential in some special fields, which has achieved great development. Nevertheless, using cellulose paper to fabricate functional paper, which integrates transparency, robustness, flexibility, shape memory, and sustainability, remains a challenge. Herein, the vitrimer precursor was vacuum impregnated into cellulose paper and then in-situ polymerized to develop a vitrimer-cellulose paper (VCP) with transparency, shape manipulation, robustness, and sustainability. Taking advantage of the vitrimer’s dynamic performance, the resulting VCP demonstrated excellent optical transparency (transmittance of 84%, haze of 75%), enhanced mechanical strength (tensile strength of 80.5 MPa), chemical resistance, thermal-triggered shape manipulation, and reprocessing. Noteworthily, VCP possessed outstanding light management capability with effective light propagating and scattering performance. Furthermore, VCP laminate showed increased mechanical property with the increased layers, and it can be reprocessed to a bulk composite after crushing. These incorporated merits of VCP make a promising candidate for light management and sustainable building application.