Effect of electrospinning parameters on the air filtration performance using electrospun polyamide-6 nanofibers

Abstract

Due to their high filtration efficiency and low basis weight nanofibrous filters are suitable for filtration applications. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of electrospinning parameters including polymer solution concentration (10-15 wt.%), applied voltage (15-25 kV) and tip-collector distance (7.5-12.5 cm) on the filtration efficiency of polyamide (PA) nanofibers. The morphology of the PA nanofibers was characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. The SEM image results indicated that the average fiber diameter of PA nanofibers was 220 nm at PA solution concentration of 12.5 wt.%, applied voltage of 20 kV, tip-collector distance of 10 cm, flow rate of 0.5 mL h-1, temperature of 25 ?C and humidity of 40%. The obtained results showed that the highest quality factor and efficiency of 7.02?10-2 Pa-1 and 96% were optimal parameters for nanofibrous filters during 30 and 240 min of electrospinning time, respectively. The presented study showed that the morphology optimization of nanofibers is an effective method for improvement of filtration performance.