Construction of photo-responsive lignin as a broad-spectrum sunscreen agent

Lignin has potential to serve as promising sunscreen agents as it has good ultraviolet (UV) absorption and antioxidant properties. However, the weak absorption capacity of lignin in the long-wave UV region (UVA, 320-400 nm) limits its further development. In this work, a spiropyran-modified lignin (DLSP) with photo-responsive property was prepared by in-situ construction of spiropyran (SP) structure in the demethylated lignin (DL). Due to the presence of SP moiety, the absorption of DLSP in the UVA region was significantly improved. Under UV irradiation, its absorption peak was redshifted as unconjugated SP form isomerized to conjugated merocyanine (MC) form, and the UVA/UVB ratio increased from 0.62 to 0.74. The free-radical scavenging ability of lignin could protect SP from photodegradation, which provided DLSP excellent fatigue resistance. DLSP were blended into creams to investigate its sunscreen performance. Results indicated that DLSP exhibited radiation-enhanced sunscreen performance, the sun protection factor (SPF) of cream containing 10 wt% of DLSP improved from 20 to 67 after 8 h of UV irradiation. Moreover, DLSP showed low skin penetration and good biocompatibility. These results provide a useful guideline for the rational design of sunscreens with special functionalities.