Composites Based on Nanoparticle and Pan Electrospun Nanofiber Membranes for Air Filtration and Bacterial Removal

Often, solid matter is separated from particle-laden flow streams using electrospun filters due to their high specific surface area, good ability to capture aerial particulate matter, and low material costs. Moreover, electrospinning allows incorporating nanoparticles to improve the filter's air filtration efficiency and bacterial removal. Therefore, a new, improved polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers membrane that could be used to remove air pollutants and also with antibacterial activity was developed. We engineered three different filters that are characterized by the different particles embedded in the PAN nanofibers: titanium dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO), and silver (Ag). Then, their filtration performance was assessed by quantifying the filtration of sodium chloride (NaCl) aerosol particles of 9 to 300 nm in diameter using a scanning mobility particle sizer. The TiO2_F filter displayed the smallest fiber diameter and the highest filtration efficiency (approximate to 100%). Conversely, the Ag_F filter showed the highest quality factor (approximate to 0.06 Pa-1) because of the lower air pressure drop. The resulting Ag_F nanofibers displayed a very good antibacterial activity using an Escherichia coli suspension (10(8) CFU/mL). Moreover, the quality factor of these membranes was higher than that of the commercially available nanofiber membrane for air filtration.

通常，由于静电比过滤器具有高的比表面积，良好的捕获空气颗粒物的能力以及较低的材料成本，因此使用静电纺丝过滤器将固体物从载有颗粒的气流中分离出来。此外，静电纺丝允许掺入纳米颗粒以提高过滤器的空气过滤效率和细菌去除率。因此，开发了一种新型的，改进的聚丙烯腈（PAN）纳米纤维膜，该膜可用于去除空气污染物并具有抗菌活性。我们设计了三种不同的过滤器，其特点是嵌入PAN纳米纤维中的颗粒不同：二氧化钛（TiO2），氧化锌（ZnO）和银（Ag）。然后，通过使用扫描迁移率粒度仪对直径为9至300 nm的氯化钠（NaCl）气溶胶颗粒的过滤进行定量，来评估其过滤性能。 TiO2_F过滤器显示出最小的纤维直径和最高的过滤效率（约100％）。相反，由于较低的气压降，Ag_F过滤器显示出最高的品质因数（约0.06 Pa-1）。所得的Ag_F纳米纤维使用大肠杆菌悬浮液（10（8）CFU / mL）表现出非常好的抗菌活性。而且，这些膜的品质因数高于用于空气过滤的市售纳米纤维膜的品质因数。

Published: 2019

Journal ：NANOMATERIALS

Impact Factor：4.324

Paper link: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/9/12/1740