Ultralight ethyl cellulose-based electret fiber membrane for low-resistance and high-efficient capture of PM2.5

Abstract

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) pollution is a serious threat to human health, so the preparation of electret films with high efficiency and low resistance capturing particulate has attracted wide attention. Herein, a strategy for the fabrication of all-polymer hybrid electret fiber membranes by electrospinning is reported based on the ethyl cellulose (EC) and polystyrene (PS). The preparation conditions of electret fiber membrane were optimized by focusing on the effect of the mass ratio of EC/PS and the spinning time on the structure, surface potential and purification performance of fiber membrane. The result showed that the fiber membrane has a low fiber diameter of 572 ± 113 nm and porosity of 82.4%, and a better potential stability when the EC/PS mass ratio was 2.5/1 and the spinning time was 10 min. As a result of the enhanced effect of electrostatic attraction on particle capture, the EC/PS composite electret membrane could make the purification efficiency of PM2.5 reach to100% within 11 min. Moreover, the EC/PS composite electret membrane has the properties of ultra-light base weight of 1.08 g·m −2 , low air resistance of 28 Pa and long service life. Therefore, the all-polymer EC/PS electret nanofiber membranes have broad application prospects in the field of air purification. • All-polymer electret EC/PS fibers without nanotoxicity are prepared. • Biomass-based electret based on ethyl cellulose as the main raw material increases the environmental friendliness of the material. • the fabricated electret fiber has an ultralight base weight. • the resultant electret fibers with high efficiency and low resistance can be compared with high efficiency air purification membrane.