Fabrication of Multifunctional Filters via Online Incorporating Nano-TiO2 into Spun-Bonded/Melt-Blown Nonwovens for Air Filtration and Toluene Degradation

Multifunctional air filters with high filtration efficiency for aerosol and good degradation for toluene and bacteria are fabricated via online incorporation of TiO2/Ag nanoparticles into the composite nonwovens with spun-bonded/melt-blown (SM) hierarchical structure. Today, severe environmental pollution attributed to atmospheric pollutants, mainly including particulate materials, and gaseous volatile organic compounds, as well as bacterial and viral contaminants, has drawn worldwide attention. In this work, a novel online incorporation technique to fabricate a multifunctional air filter with hierarchical structure of SM nonwovens and TiO2 based nanoparticles is proposed. The in situ incorporation technique not only enables the SM nonwovens filters with four orders increment on toluene degradation rate, but also increases filtration quality factor Q(f) of the SM filters to 0.2251 Pa-1. This research shows promising applications of the multifunctional TiO2/SM nonwoven filters for indoor air remediation. In addition, this scale-up fabrication method of fiber-based filters will potentially promote engineering of macromolecular fiber materials.