Multifunctional and Efficient Air Filtration: A Natural Nanofilter Prepared with Zein and Polyvinyl Alcohol

Nanofibers prepared by electrospinning technology possess large specific surface area and adjustable fiber diameter. Zein is a hydrophobic plant protein that can interact with pollutants in the air. In this work, using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the auxiliary spinning polymer, zein based nanofiber materials are prepared for air filtration by varying zein/PVA ratio as well as the alcoholysis degree. With the increase of zein content, the diameter of nanofibers decreases gradually, and the nanofibers prepared by PVA with low alcoholysis degree exhibit better micromorphology. The zein based nanofibers prepared after denaturation of zein protein can interact with different types of pollutants. In addition, for the nanofibers prepared by PVA with different alcoholysis degree, the filtration efficiency increases with the increase of zein content when absorbing air pollution particles with different particle sizes and the alcoholysis degree affects the air filtration efficiency. Thus, through controlling zein content and alcoholysis degree, the filtration efficiency of nanofibers is promoted availably. These results indicate that the natural nanofilter prepared with zein and PVA can be used a multifunctional and efficient material for air filtration.

通过静电纺丝技术制备的纳米纤维具有较大的比表面积和可调节的纤维直径。玉米蛋白是一种疏水性植物蛋白，可以与空气中的污染物相互作用。在这项工作中，使用聚乙烯醇（PVA）作为辅助纺丝聚合物，通过改变玉米醇溶蛋白/聚乙烯醇的比率以及醇解度，制备了玉米醇溶蛋白基纳米纤维材料用于空气过滤。随着玉米醇溶蛋白含量的增加，纳米纤维的直径逐渐减小，醇解度低的PVA制备的纳米纤维表现出更好的微观形貌。玉米醇溶蛋白变性后制备的基于玉米醇溶蛋白的纳米纤维可以与不同类型的污染物相互作用。另外，对于醇解度不同的PVA制得的纳米纤维，当吸收不同粒径的空气污染颗粒时，过滤效率随玉米醇溶蛋白含量的增加而增加，醇解度影响空气过滤效率。因此，通过控制玉米醇溶蛋白含量和醇解度，可有效提高纳米纤维的过滤效率。这些结果表明用玉米蛋白和PVA制备的天然纳米过滤器可以用作空气过滤的多功能和有效材料。

Published: 2020

Journal ：MACROMOLECULAR MATERIALS AND ENGINEERING

Impact Factor：3.856

Paper link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mame.202000239