ZnO/Ag nanoparticles incorporated multifunctional parallel side by side nanofibers for air filtration with enhanced removing organic contaminants and antibacterial properties

Abstract

In this work, we have developed a side by side nanofibers (SBS NFs) by a versatile electrospinning technique using a self-designed nozzle that allows the ejecting of the solution simultaneously in a side by side manner. The as-designed fiber was composed of Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on one side while silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) on the other side, thereby forming a coupled fiber with a property of photo catalysis and antibacterial properties, respectively. The results showed enhanced dye degradation up to 97% within 140 min of test and antibacterial properties against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria by the SBS NFs as compared to 80% degradation for the single nanofibers (SNFs) which had both ZnO NPs and Ag NPs but in a random orientation. SBS NFs filter (ZA-3) also exhibited a high filtration efficiency (80%) comparable to the lower 72% for SNFs filter. We believe that the as-modified electrospinning setup can be easily extended to prepare a new generation of nanofibers for a variety of applications such as biomedical, filtration, oil/water separation, and so on.