Superhydrophobic and highly moisture-resistant PVA@EC composite membrane for air purification

Abstract

Electrospun fiber membranes have great potential in the field of air filtration because of their high porosity and small pore size. Conventional air filtration membranes are hydrophilic, leading to weak moisture-barrier properties, which hinders their application in high-humidity environments. In this study, eugenol was added to polyvinyl alcohol and ethyl cellulose (EC) for electrospinning and electrospraying, respectively, of superhydrophobic bilayer composite fiber membranes to efficiently filter particulate matter (PM) in air. Owing to its surface microstructure, electrosprayed EC increased the water contact angle of the PVA membrane from 142.8 to 151.1°. More importantly, the composite air-filter membrane showed a low filtration pressure drop (168.1 Pa) and exhibited high filtration efficiencies of 99.74 and 99.77% for PM_1.0 and PM_2.5, respectively, and their respective quality factors were 0.0351 and 0.0358 Pa⁻¹. At the same time, the filtration performance of the air filtration membrane remained above 99% at high air humidity. This work reports composite membranes that can effectively capture PM of various sizes and thus may provide a reference for the manufacturing of green air filters for high-humidity environments.