Ferroelectric PVDF nanofiber membrane for high-efficiency PM0.3 air filtration with low air flow resistance

Tan Tan Bui; Min Kyoung Shin; Seung Yong Jee; Dang Xuan Long; Jongin Hong; Myung-Gil Kim

doi:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2022.128418

Ferroelectric PVDF nanofiber membrane for high-efficiency PM0.3 air filtration with low air flow resistance

Colloids Surf A Physicochem Eng Asp. 2022 May 5:640:128418. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2022.128418. Epub 2022 Jan 29.

Authors

Tan Tan Bui¹, Min Kyoung Shin², Seung Yong Jee³, Dang Xuan Long^{2

4}, Jongin Hong^{2

4}, Myung-Gil Kim¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Chemistry, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Republic of Korea.
³ Lemon Corporation, Gumi 39170, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Department of Smart Cities, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

The significant public health concerns related to particulate matter (PM) air pollutants and the airborne transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have led to considerable interest in high-performance air filtration membranes. Highly ferroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofiber (NF) filter membranes are successfully fabricated via electrospinning for high-performance low-cost air filtration. Spectroscopic and ferro-/piezoelectric analyses of PVDF NF show that a thinner PVDF NF typically forms a ferroelectric β phase with a confinement effect. A 70-nm PVDF NF membrane exhibits the highest fraction of β phase (87%) and the largest polarization behavior from piezoresponse force microscopy. An ultrathin 70-nm PVDF NF membrane exhibits a high PM_0.3 filtration efficiency of 97.40% with a low pressure drop of 51 Pa at an air flow of 5.3 cm/s owing to the synergetic combination of the slip effect and ferroelectric dipole interaction. Additionally, the 70-nm PVDF NF membrane shows excellent thermal and chemical stabilities with negligible filtration performance degradation (air filtration efficiency of 95.99% and 87.90% and pressure drop of 55 and 65 Pa, respectively) after 24 h of heating at 120 °C and 1 h immersion in isopropanol.

Keywords: Air filtration; COVID-19; Electrospun PVDF; Ferroelectric nanofiber; Nanofibrous membrane.