Nacre-inspired hemicelluloses paper with fire retardant and gas barrier properties by self-assembly with bentonite nanosheets.

Demand for fabricating robust hemicelluloses composites has been continuously increasing so as to replace petroleum-derived materials with renewable resources. In this study, a new galactomannan with high molecular weight was extracted from endosperms of Sesbania cannabina which could improve the formation of arabinoxylan film. Inspired by the excellent mechanical properties and hierarchical structure of natural nacre, these naturally extracted arabinoxylan and galactomannan were further self-assembled with bentonite nanosheets, generating a ternary paper with multilayered structure. These hemicelluloses-bentonite papers exhibited the highest tensile strength of 80.87 MPa, 2.39 times that of the hemicelluloses paper without bentonite, which was achieved by the crosslinking reactions between hemicelluloses and bentonite nanosheets. Our study further demonstrated that these papers possess superior gas barrier, water-resistant and fire-retardant properties with the addition of small amount of bentonite nanosheet, which holds the potential for use as fire-protective insulations, coatings, packaging, and aerospace materials.