Ultralight ethyl cellulose-based electret fiber membrane for low-resistance and high-efficient capture of PM2.5

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) pollution is a serious threat to human health, so the preparation of electret films with high efficiency and low resistance capturing particulate has attracted wide attention. Herein, a strategy for the fabrication of all-polymer hybrid electret fiber membranes by electrospinning is reported based on the ethyl cellulose (EC) and polystyrene (PS). The preparation conditions of electret fiber membrane were optimized by focusing on the effect of the mass ratio of EC/PS and the spinning time on the structure, surface potential and purification performance of fiber membrane. The result showed that the fiber membrane has a low fiber diameter of 572 +/- 113 nm and porosity of 82.4%, and a better potential stability when the EC/PS mass ratio was 2.5/1 and the spinning time was 10 min. As a result of the enhanced effect of electrostatic attraction on particle capture, the EC/PS composite electret membrane could make the purification efficiency of PM2.5 reach to100% within 11 min. Moreover, the EC/PS composite electret membrane has the properties of ultra-light base weight of 1.08 g.m(-2), low air resistance of 28 Pa and long service life. Therefore, the all-polymer EC/PS electret nanofiber membranes have broad application prospects in the field of air purification.

Automated summary

By optimizing the preparation conditions of the electret fiber membrane, the EC/PS composite membrane showed low fiber diameter and high porosity, with the best performance achieved at EC/PS mass ratio of 2.5/1 and spinning time of 10 minutes. The composite electret membrane exhibited a purification efficiency of 100% for PM2.5 within 11 minutes, indicating promising applications in air purification.