How it Fabricate Bio-Based Air Filters with Advanced Performance

Integrating nanostructured active materials, antimicrobial components, and rational porous structures is one of the promising approaches for simultaneously boosting removal efficiency, antimicrobial capacity, mechanical property, hydrophobic performance, and air permeability of air filters. However, realizing these performances of an air filter still remains a big challenge. Herein, a multifunctional air filter zNFs-Ag@PT, which is composed of a unique substrate prepared from Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs)-paper towel (PT) microfibers and an upper layer formed from aligned zein nanofibers (zNFs) inspired by a "tug-of-war" repulsion force, is reported. The Ag@PT substrate is fabricated via in situ reduction; and zNFs are prepared by electrospinning a well-prepared zein Pickering emulsion onto a specially designed collector. The innovative collector is a partially conductive design composed of an insulative middle section and two conductive ends. It is demonstrated that the introduction of AgNPs not only endows the zNFs-Ag@PT filter with an effective antimicrobial activity but also provides the substrate with an anisotropic electric field to achieve stretched and aligned zein fibers forming thinner nanofibers than that without AgNPs. As a result, the filtration performances of a zNFs-Ag@PT filter are enhanced. This study initiates an effective way to fabricate bio-based multifunctional air filters with antimicrobial and filtration performances via combining nano- and biotechnology.

集成纳米结构活性材料的抗菌成分和合理的多孔结构是同时提高空气过滤器的去除效率、抗菌能力、机械性能、疏水性能和透气性的有效方法之一。然而，实现空气过滤器的这些性能仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在此，一种多功能空气过滤器zNFs-Ag @ PT由由银纳米颗粒（AgNPs）-纸巾（PT）超细纤维制成的独特基材和由对齐的玉米醇溶蛋白纳米纤维（zNFs）形成的上层组成，该上层受到“拖船”的启发报告了“战争”的排斥力。 Ag @ PT衬底是通过原位还原制造的； ZNF和ZNF的制备方法是将精心准备的玉米醇溶蛋白Pickering乳液静电纺丝到专门设计的收集器上。创新的集电器是一种部分导电的设计，由一个绝缘的中间部分和两个导电端组成。结果表明，AgNPs的引入不仅赋予zNFs-Ag @ PT过滤器有效的抗菌活性，而且还为基质提供了各向异性的电场，以实现拉伸和排列的玉米醇溶蛋白纤维，形成了比不含AgNPs的纳米纤维更细的纳米纤维。结果，增强了zNFs-Ag @ PT过滤器的过滤性能。这项研究开创了一种通过结合纳米技术和生物技术来制造具有抗菌和过滤性能的生物基多功能空气过滤器的有效方法。

Published: 2021

Journal ：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Impact Factor：9.002

Paper link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.0c20596