Doping metal–organic framework composites to antibacterial air filter development for quality control of indoor air

Abstract

AbstractBuilding airtightness for acquiring greater energy efficiency have impacted indoor air quality. The control of pollution requires air filtration. Bioaerosols serve as an essential quality indicator of indoor air. The contamination of bioaerosols is a filtration barrier. The present study proposes a novel metal–organic framework (MOFs) antimicrobial air filter. This study is the first to employ Ag/MOFs/IMI in order to build an air filter for the deactivation and removal of indoor airborne microbes. The media of the Ag/MOFs/IMI/EPA filter was fabricated using the dip‐coating of Ag/MOFs/IMI by imidazole and silver NPs. The deactivation and removal efficiency of the Ag/MOFs/IMI/EPA filter was assessed by bioaerosols, including “Escherichia coli” (E. coli) and “Staphylococcus aureus” (S. aureus) within a closed‐loop chamber at the RH degrees of 30% and 70%. The findings suggested that the Ag/MOFs/IMI filter's removal efficiency by nearly 17.88% without significant increase in pressure drop in comparison to the raw EPA filter for the bioaerosol of S. aureus. Furthermore, the Ag/MOFs/IMI filter media's deactivation efficiency under 3% loading was obtained to be 95.62% ± 1.2% and 99.4% ± 3.25% for the bioaerosol of S. aureus at an RH of 30% and 70%, respectively. Moreover, the E. coli deactivation efficiency under an Ag/MOFs/IMI loading of 1% was found to be 68.33% ± 1.98% and 96.27% ± 3.04% for an RH of 30% and 70%, respectively. The findings indicated the Ag/MOFs/IMI filter's media to be able to effectively inactivate bioaerosols and prevent their spread from the air filter into the indoor place. Furthermore, these findings provide a pioneer contribution to the antibacterial quality development of commercial filters.