Polyvinylidene fluoride composite nanofibrous filter for high-efficiency PM2.5 capture

Abstract

Filter materials are widely used in the capture of fine particulate matter (PM), however, there are some problems such as low filtration efficiency, difficult cleaning and low air flow still need to be solved eagerly. In this work, a high-performance PM2.5 capture as well as high productivity (1000 m2/day) was fabricated by introducing an ultra-thin polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibrous layer on the filter materials via electrospinning technology with rotary bead-wire spinnerets. The electrospun PVDF nanofibers exhibit a strong ability to intercept and attract PM, thus, the filtering efficiency of the filter material for PM2.5 improved significantly (69.958%–98.161%). The composite filter has a higher air flow (278.4 mm/s) and lower pressure drop (30 Pa). Furthermore, long-term filtration and ventilation rate experiments show that the composite filter has stable high filtration efficiency (98.137%–96.36%) and ventilation rate. Electrospun PVDF fibers also have a certain degree of hydrophobicity, which could increase the long lifetime of composite filter effectively. This high-performance composite nanofibrous membrane would be a promising filter for large-scale PM2.5 capture production and personal health protection.