Carbon black incorporated electrospun nanofibers for air filtration application

Abstract

Electrostatic filter media were developed by incorporating various concentrations of Carbon Black (8, 10 and 12 wt%) on Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) through electrospinning. The prepared nanofibers were characterized for their morphology, phase transformation, wettability, thermal and predominantly electrostatic properties. Three filtration efficiency parameters such as concentration of CB (wt%), electrospinning time (hr) and areal density of substrate (GSM) were fed in Box Behnken design to obtain 15 experimental STATs. The experiments were performed with NaCl solution as the aerosols in the range of 0.1–1 μm and filtration efficiency as the response. Further, other filter media properties such as pore size, air permeability, pressure drop and thickness are investigated. STAT 12 resulted in the highest filtration efficiency of 99.99% with 12 wt% of CB, 3 h of electrospinning time and 60 GSM of substrate. The prepared filter also shows a maximum filtration efficiency of 99.98% at the most penetrating particle size (MPPS), 0.3 μm. The present research thus opens a pathway for hybrid mechanisms of separation improving filtration efficiency in addition to pre-existing mechanisms.