Abstract
New types of air filter technologies are being called because air pollution by particulate matters (PMs) and volatile organic compounds has raised serious concerns for public health. Conventional air filters have limited application and poor degradability and they become non-disposable wastes after use. Here, we report a highly efficient, eco-friendly, translucent, and multifunctional air purification filter that is highly effective for reducing air pollution, protecting the environment, and detecting hazardous chemical vapors encountered in everyday life. Uniform silk protein nanofibers were directly generated on a window screen by an electrospinning process. Optical properties (translucence and scattering) of the silk nanofibrous air filters (SNAFs) are advantageous for achieving viewability and controlling the room temperature. Air filtration efficiencies of the fabricated SNAFs could reach up to 90% and 97% for PMs with sizes under 2.5 and 10 μm, respectively, exceeding the performances of commercial semi-high-efficiency particulate air (semi-HEPA) filters. After use, the SNAFs could be naturally degraded. Furthermore, we demonstrate the ability of SNAFs impregnated with organic dyes to sense hazardous and volatile vapors encountered in everyday life.
Highlights
Since the “Industrial Revolution,” human activities have caused a great deal of pollution
We report a highly efficient, eco-friendly, optically translucent, and multifunctional air filter based on silk protein directly electrospun on a window screen, which can be utilized for highly efficient air filtration, improvement of indoor energy efficiency, and detection of hazardous vapors at the same time
silk nanofibrous air filters (SNAFs) functionalized with dyes display highly sensitive colorimetric and fluorescent chemosensing capabilities used for the detection of ammonia (NH3) and methanol (MeOH) vapors, respectively
Summary
Since the “Industrial Revolution,” human activities have caused a great deal of pollution. Electrospinning, an electrostatic fiber fabrication technique, has recently attracted increased interest owing to its versatility and potential application in diverse fields[16,17] It enables low-cost and high throughput fabrication of polymeric nanofibers as well as serves as a means of controlling the material properties of nanofibers such as stiffness, fiber diameter, and porosity. Silk fibroin (a natural protein from the Bombyx mori cocoon) can be a valuable candidate to generate functionalized and optically activated fibrous membranes[12,22,38] due to its feasibility of developing versatile and eco-friendly air filters. We report a highly efficient, eco-friendly, optically translucent, and multifunctional air filter based on silk protein directly electrospun on a window screen, which can be utilized for highly efficient air filtration, improvement of indoor energy efficiency, and detection of hazardous vapors at the same time. SNAFs functionalized with dyes display highly sensitive colorimetric and fluorescent chemosensing capabilities used for the detection of ammonia (NH3) and methanol (MeOH) vapors, respectively
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