Silk protein nanofibers for highly efficient, eco-friendly, optically translucent, and multifunctional air filters

New types of air filter technologies are being called because air pollution by particulate matters (PMs) and volatile organic compounds has raised serious concerns for public health. Conventional air filters have limited application and poor degradability and they become non-disposable wastes after use. Here, we report a highly efficient, eco-friendly, translucent, and multifunctional air purification filter that is highly effective for reducing air pollution, protecting the environment, and detecting hazardous chemical vapors encountered in everyday life. Uniform silk protein nanofibers were directly generated on a window screen by an electrospinning process. Optical properties (translucence and scattering) of the silk nanofibrous air filters (SNAFs) are advantageous for achieving viewability and controlling the room temperature. Air filtration efficiencies of the fabricated SNAFs could reach up to 90% and 97% for PMs with sizes under 2.5 and 10 mu m, respectively, exceeding the performances of commercial semihigh-efficiency particulate air (semi-HEPA) filters. After use, the SNAFs could be naturally degraded. Furthermore, we demonstrate the ability of SNAFs impregnated with organic dyes to sense hazardous and volatile vapors encountered in everyday life.

新型空气过滤器技术之所以被称为是因为颗粒物（PMs）和挥发性有机化合物对空气的污染引起了公众健康的严重关注。常规的空气过滤器应用受限且降解性差，并且在使用后它们成为不可丢弃的废物。在此，我们报告了一种高效，环保，半透明和多功能的空气净化过滤器，该过滤器对于减少空气污染，保护环境和检测日常生活中遇到的有害化学蒸气非常有效。均一的丝蛋白纳米纤维是通过静电纺丝工艺直接在窗户屏幕上产生的。丝纳米纤维空气过滤器（SNAF）的光学特性（半透明和散射）有利于实现可见性和控制室温。对于尺寸小于2.5和10μm的PM，所制造的SNAF的空气过滤效率分别可以达到90％和97％，超过了商用半高效颗粒空气（semi-HEPA）过滤器的性能。使用后，SNAF可能会自然降解。此外，我们证明了用有机染料浸渍的SNAF能够感知日常生活中遇到的有害和挥发性蒸气。

Published: 2018

Journal ：Scientific Reports

Impact Factor：4.149

Paper link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-27917-w