<p>Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has come into the limelight as a non-toxic, highly transparent and biodegradable polymer material, but its application has been greatly restricted due to its flammability. How to productively enhance the flame retardancy of PVA without influencing the tensile characteristics and transparency of PVA materials has been a difficulty in the research on PVA flame retardancy. In this study, a new type of transparent liquid flame-retardant material containing phosphorus and nitrogen component, methyl N-(2-aminoethyl)-P-methylphosphonamidate (ETDM), was designed and prepared, compounded with nano-TiO₂ and added into PVA Matrix by the solution casting method. The results showed that, when the addition of ETDM was 9.25 wt% and the addition of nano-TiO₂ was 0.75 wt%, the limiting oxygen index (LOI) value of the PVA composite reached 29.2%, and the vertical combustion test UL-94 rating reached V-0. The total heat release (THR) and peak heat release rate (pHRR) were reduced by 48.9% and 14.1%, respectively, which demonstrated better flame retardant and safety performance of the composites. In terms of tensile properties, the tensile strength, elongation-at-break and Modulus of elasticity of the composite film increased by 56.8%, 59.7% and 57.2%, respectively. In addition, the addition of 0.75 wt% of nano-TiO₂ conferred a certain degree of UV resistance to the composites and had little effect on their transparency. The transparent and UV-resistant high-performance flame-retardant PVA films prepared in this work will be helpful for the wide application of PVA materials in practice.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>