Study of the filtration performance of multilayer and multiscale fibrous structures

Abstract

As the incidence of small-diameter particles in the air has increased in recent decades, the development of efficient filtration systems is both urgent and necessary. Nanotechnology, more precisely, electrospun nanofibres, has been identified as a potential solution for this issue, since it allows for the production of membranes with high rates of fibres per unit area, increasing the probability of nanoparticle collision and consequent retention. In the present study, the electrospinning technique of polyamide nanofibre production was optimized with the variation of parameters such as polymer concentration, flow rate and needle diameter. The optimized polyamide nanofibres were combined with polypropylene and polyester microfibres to construct a multilayer and multiscale system with an increased filtration efficiency. We observed that the penetration value of the multilayer system with a PA membrane in the composition, produced for 20 min in the electrospinning, is 2.7 times smaller than the penetration value of the system with the absence of micro and nano fibers.