Electrospun Filters for Air Filtration: Comparison with Existing Air Filtration Technologies

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) in air is a severe threat to the health of humankind. The existing air filtration technologies, which mainly include the porous film filter and the conventional fibrous filter prepared by meltblown or spunbonded process, could not simultaneously possess high filtration efficiency and low pressure drop toward fine particulates. Developing novel air filters with excellent filtration performance is of great importance. Electrospun nanofibrous membranes attract much attention due to their many fascinating characteristics, such as small fiber diameter, large open porosity, and their wide raw material sources. Thanks to the abovementioned properties, electrospun filters with the electrospun nanofibrous membranes as the core filtration media are intensively studied. A large amount of raw materials including polymers and ceramics have been fabricated to nanofibrous membranes via electrospinning, and they are applied as air filters. These electrospun filters exhibit attracting characteristics such as high filtration efficiency, low pressure drop, and good capturing ability toward fine particulates. Moreover, the electrospun filters exhibit great potentials in many applications, such as industrial dust filtration, locomotive air filtration, and indoor air filtration. In this chapter, the history and filtration mechanism, the main materials, and the applications of the electrospun filters are introduced, and the comparison of the electrospun filters with the existing air filtration technologies is discussed. This chapter may shed some light on the development of the electrospun filters for eliminating PM pollutions from air.