Moisture Effect on Particulate Matter Filtration Performance using Electro-Spun Nanofibers including Density...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Computational Chemistry
• Environmental Engineering

Background:

• Nanofiber (NF)-based air filters are crucial for particulate matter (PM) removal.
• Moisture can significantly degrade the performance of air filtration media.
• Understanding material-water interactions is key to developing robust filters.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of moisture on the performance of electrospun polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylidene fluoride, and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber air filters.
• To predict filter performance in wet conditions using density functional theory (DFT) calculations.
• To experimentally validate the computational findings for PAN-based filters.

Main Methods:

• Density functional theory (DFT) calculations to model intermolecular interactions between filter media and water molecules.
• Experimental fabrication of polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylidene fluoride, and PAN nanofiber air filters via electrospinning.
• Performance testing of nanofiber filters for particulate matter (PM) filtration under wet conditions.
• Comparison with a commercial semi-high efficiency particulate air (SEPA) filter.

Main Results:

• DFT calculations predicted that PAN-NF filter media would exhibit the best performance in a wet state.
• Experimental results confirmed that PAN-NF filters outperformed a commercial SEPA filter under humid conditions.
• The enhanced performance of PAN-NF was attributed to its hydrophilic nature and thin structure.
• Fast recovery of PM filtration performance was observed for the PAN-NF filter.

Conclusions:

• PAN-NF filter media demonstrate superior PM filtration efficiency and resilience in humid environments compared to other tested materials and commercial filters.
• DFT calculations serve as a reliable tool for predicting the performance of nanofiber air filters under varying moisture conditions.
• The hydrophilic nature and optimized thickness of PAN-NF are critical factors for its effectiveness in wet air filtration applications.