Design and Fabrication of a Renewable and Highly Transparent Multilayer Coating on Poly(lactic acid) Film Capable of UV-Shielding and Antifogging

A new and highly transparent multilayer coating on poly(lactic acid) (PLA) film has been designed and constructed based on the layer-by-layer assembly of green and renewable hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and tannic acid (TA). The surface chemical structure, thickness, and morphology analyses of the multilayer coating confirm that HPMC and TA are successfully incorporated based on the hydrogen-bonding interaction. The resultant coated PLA film presents excellent UV-shielding and antifogging properties, which shows strong dependency on the number of assembly cycles. Although the tensile mechanical property of coated PLA film shows a decrease, the thermal property of the PLA substrate remained. This work provides a simple but effective pathway to design and fabricate highly transparent and environmentally friendly coating for the UV-shielding and antifogging applications.