Abstract
Particulate matter (PM) pollution, which usually carries viruses and bacteria, has drawn considerable attention as a major threat to public health. In this present study, an environment-friendly antibacterial Poly(lactic acid)(PLA)/chitosan composite air filter was fabricated using the one-step electrospinning technique. The composite PLA/chitosan fibres show a highly porous structure, in which chitosan nanoparticles (NPs) were found to be uniformly distributed throughout the entire fibre. The morphologies, through-pore size and distribution, air filtration and anti-microbial properties of these filter media were studied. The results showed that it was not the chitosan content but instead the concentration of the spinning solutions that had the greatest effect on the morphologies of the porous fibres. The relative humidity influenced the nanometre-scale pores on the surface of PLA/chitosan fibres. The PLA/chitosan fibrous membranes with a chitosan to PLA mass ratio of 2.5:8 exhibited a high filtration efficiency of 98.99% and a relatively low pressure drop (147.60 Pa) when the air flow rate was 14 cm/s, while these also had high antibacterial activity of 99.4% and 99.5% against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. It took 33 min for the PM2.5 concentration to decrease to 0 μg/m3 from 999 μg/m3 using the PLA/chitosan fibrous membranes, which demonstrates obviously effective air purification performance.
Highlights
In recent decades, the levels of particulate matter (PM) in the air, which are well known to affect the quality of human life and even to pose a serious threat to the health of the public [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] have been obviously rising due to rapid urbanization and industrialization
It is generally accepted that the pores on the surface of fibres affect the specific surface area and the nanoporous structure of the resultant fibrous membranes [24,41,42], which affect the air filtration efficiency and purification performance [43]
No chitosan NPs were observed on the surface of the fibres in Figure 1 (×4k, 5k and 10k) and it was speculated that the chitosan NPs could be broken up into smaller particles under the high-voltage electric field during the electrospinning process, before being distributed on PLA fibres [15]
Summary
The levels of particulate matter (PM) in the air, which are well known to affect the quality of human life and even to pose a serious threat to the health of the public [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] have been obviously rising due to rapid urbanization and industrialization. The components of indoor air are complex, including solid particles, liquid droplets, pet hairs, etc., and can pose great harm. Filter media with excellent filtration and antibacterial performance are in high demand. Various types of polymers have been fabricated as electrospun fibrous membranes to be used as air filtration media. Nanofibre membranes with optimal characteristics, such as a high specific surface area and porous microstructure with interconnected pores, can efficiently capture the fine particles [8,10,11,12]. Electrospinning is an Polymers 2018, 10, 1085; doi:10.3390/polym10101085 www.mdpi.com/journal/polymers
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