Abstract
Particulate matter (PM) pollution is a serious concern for the environment and public health. To protect indoor air quality, nanofiber filters have been used to coat window screens due to their high PM removal efficiency, transparency and low air resistance. However, these materials have poor mechanical property. In this study, electrostatic induction-assisted solution blowing was used to fabricate polylactide stereocomplex (sc-PLA), which served as reinforcement to enhance the physical cross-linking point to significantly restrict poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) molecular chain motion and improve the mechanical properties of sc-PLA/PMMA nanofibers. Moreover, the introduction of sc-PLA led to the formation of thick/thin composite nanofiber structure, which is beneficial for the mechanical property. Thus, sc-PLA/PMMA air filters of ~83% transparency with 99.5% PM2.5 removal and 140% increase in mechanical properties were achieved when 5 wt % sc-PLA was added to PMMA. Hence, the addition of sc-PLA to transparent filters can effectively improve their performance.
Highlights
Particulate matter (PM) is a major air pollutant that threatens the environment and public health.PM2.5, with aerodynamic diameters smaller than 2.5 μm, has been associated with detrimental health outcomes, such as cancer, respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular diseases [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Solution blowing is a quasi-commercial method to produce nanofibers with high efficiency and electrostatic induction is beneficial in obtaining a homogeneous fiber distribution, as found in our previous work [34]
electrostatic induction-assisted solution blowing (ESB) is an important method for mass production of nanofiber membranes [35]
Summary
Particulate matter (PM) is a major air pollutant that threatens the environment and public health.PM2.5 , with aerodynamic diameters smaller than 2.5 μm, has been associated with detrimental health outcomes, such as cancer, respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular diseases [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Particulate matter (PM) is a major air pollutant that threatens the environment and public health. According to a survey, Beijing’s residential ventilation level is only 0.17 h−1 , which is far below China’s national standard of 1.0 h−1 and is not conducive to good health as a result of insufficient indoor air circulation [8]. To overcome this challenge, a novel strategy should be developed to reduce PM2.5 and provide sufficient ventilation
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