The demand of new materials and processes for nanofiber fabrication to enhance the performance of air filters is steadily increasing. Typical approaches to obtain nanofibers are based on top-down processes such as melt blowing, centrifugal spinning, and electrospinning of polymer materials. However, fabrication of polymer nanofibers is limited with respect to either a sufficiently high throughput or the smallest achievable fiber diameter. This study reports comprehensively on a fast and simple bottom-up process to prepare supramolecular nanofibers in situ inside viscose/polyester microfiber nonwovens. Here, selected small molecules of the materials class of 1,3,5-benzenetrisamides are employed. The microfiber-nanofiber composites exhibit a homogeneous nanofiber distribution and morphology throughout the entire nonwoven scaffold. Small changes in molecular structure and processing solvent have a strong influence on the final nanofiber diameter and diameter distribution and, consequently, on the filtration performance. Choosing proper processing conditions, microfiber-nanofiber composites with surprisingly high filtration efficiencies of particulate matter are obtained. In addition, the microfiber-nanofiber composite integrity at elevated temperatures was determined and revealed that the morphology of supramolecular nanofibers is maintained compared to that of the utilized polymer nonwoven.
Keywords: air filtration; microfiber−nanofiber composites; nanofibers; particulate matter; supramolecular materials.