Electrospun Porous Mats for High Efficiency Filtration

Abstract

Submicron size fibers (so-called nanofibers) are easily produced with an electrospinning apparatus from polymer solutions of poly(ethylene oxide), poly(vinyl alcohol), and polyamide-6. Electrospinning seems the most powerful tool for fabricating polymer nanofibers. Fibers were directly deposited in the form of random fiber webs with high area-to-volume ratio and small porous size on ordinary nonwoven filters of PET microfibers. Morphology and diameter distribution of the electrospun filaments were characterized by SEM investigations. The flow resistance of the produced composite filters are evaluated by means of air permeability measurements. The electrospun fibers have diameters ranging from about 70—500 nm and are interconnected each other to form thin webs that have very small pore size. After the electrospinning treatment, the air permeability of the filter media decreases 6—17 times showing a significant change of flow resistance that can be controlled by the thickness of nanofibers layer and the pore size. High efficiency nano-microfibers composite filters could be used in a wide range of applications, ranging from air cleaning for automotive to environment conditioning or liquid filtration.