Abstract
With the growing concern about the health impacts associated with airborne particles, there is a pressing need to design an effective filter device. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of plasma-based surface modifications on static charges of electrospun filter media and their resulting filtration performance. Polystyrene (PS) electrospun web (ES) had inherent static charges of ~3.7 kV due to its electric field-driven process, displaying effective filtration performance. When oxygen species were created on the surface by the oxygen plasma process, static charges of electret media decreased, deteriorating the filter performance. When the web surface was fluorinated by the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), the filtration efficiency against oily aerosol significantly increased due to the combined effect of decreased wettability and strong static charges (~−3.9 kV). Solid particles on the charged media formed dendrites as particles were attracted to other layers of particles, building up a pressure drop. The PECVD process is suggested as a facile functionalization method for effective filter design, particularly for capturing oily aerosol.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that the ambient air pollution accounts for an annual death of about 4.2 million in 2016 by various chronic respiratory diseases [1]
Charges The can be immediately imposed the produced without filter media, as the static charges can be immediately imposed onto the produced fibers, without undergoing an additional charging step
In search of a facile design strategy for an effective filter media, the study investigated the effect of plasma-based surface modification on the charge holding capability and the resulting filtration performance
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that the ambient air pollution accounts for an annual death of about 4.2 million in 2016 by various chronic respiratory diseases [1]. The health risks associated with the airborne particles become serious for the particle size less than 2.5 μm, as such fine matters can even reach the bloodstream [3]. With such concerns, the role of air filters either in the form of air-purifying respirators or a filtration system become more important. Particles in the airflow can be filtered through a fibrous media by the single fiber-capture mechanism, not by sieving [3,6,7]. Electrostatic charges are often imposed upon the filter media during manufacturing to better attract: (1) The oppositely-charged particles by the coulombic interaction, and (2) the neutral particles by induced polarization [9,10,11]
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