Abstract
Air pollution is one of the biggest health and environmental problems in the world and a huge threat to human health on a global scale. Due to the great impact of respiratory viral infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, lung disease, and heart disease, respiratory allergies are increasing significantly every year. Because of the special properties of electrospun nanofiber mats, e.g., large surface-to-volume ratio and low basis weight, uniform size, and nanoporous structure, nanofiber mats are the preferred choice for use in large-scale air filtration applications. In this review, we summarize the significant studies on electrospun nanofiber mats for filtration applications, present the electrospinning technology, show the structure and mechanism of air filtration. In addition, an overview of current air filtration materials derived from bio- and synthetic polymers and blends is provided. Apart from this, the use of biopolymers in filtration applications is still relatively new and this field is still under-researched. The application areas of air filtration materials are discussed here and future prospects are summarized in conclusion. In order to develop new effective filtration materials, it is necessary to understand the interaction between technology, materials, and filtration mechanisms, and this study was intended to contribute to this effort.
Highlights
The atmosphere contains toxic particulate matter (PM) pollutants that are a mixture of particles, microorganisms, spores, toxic gases, heavy metal dusts, and organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, and aerosol particles
A biodegradable and multifunctional air filtration nanomembrane was prepared by electrospinning soy protein isolate (SPI)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) system at Fang et al, which represents a new type of high-performance environmentally friendly filtration materials
The results showed that the particulate matter is either trapped by the nanofibers or captured at the surfaces of the fibers by inertial impaction or diffusion
Summary
The atmosphere contains toxic particulate matter (PM) pollutants that are a mixture of particles, microorganisms, spores, toxic gases, heavy metal dusts, and organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, and aerosol particles. Conventional filtration media like melt-blown and glass fiber cannot capture aerosol fine dust because the pore size of microfibers is relatively large and bacterial filtration is still limited [17] These fibrous materials have limited efficiency in filtering the finest particles and are not suitable for all applications because of their large pore size structure and micro-scale fiber diameter [18,19]. According to the results of several research groups, nanofibers can be produced by electrospinning process from natural materials, such as polysaccharides, collagen, silk, cellulose, or synthetic polymers, such as polyacrylonitrile (PAN), poly(lactic acid) (PLA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polyurethane (PU), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyamide-6 (PA-6), etc These and many other polymers are well known in the field of filter materials and are applied in air filter applications [38,39,40]. We give an overview of the optimized structure, materials and production technology of electrospun nanofiber mats for effective air filter applications
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