Antibacterial air filtration membranes are essential for personal protection during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, high-efficiency filtration with low pressure drop and effective antibiosis is difficult to achieve. To solve this problem, an innovative electrospinning system with low binding energy and high conductivity was built to enhance the jet splitting, and a fluffy nanofibrous membrane containing numerous ultrafine nanofibers and large quantities of antibacterial agents was achieved, which was fabricated by electrospinning polyamide 6 (PA6), poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP), chitosan (CS), and curcumin (Cur). The filtration efficiency for 0.3 μm NaCl particles was 99.83%, the pressure drop was 54 Pa, and the quality factor (QF) was up to 0.118 Pa-1. CS and Cur synergistically enhanced the antibacterial performance; the bacteriostatic rates against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were 99.5 and 98.9%, respectively. This work will largely promote the application of natural antibacterial agents in the development of high-efficiency, low-resistance air filters for personal protection by manufacturing ultrafine nanofibers with enhanced antibiosis.
Keywords: air filtration; antibacterial activity; coronavirus disease 2019; electrospinning; fluffy nanofiber membrane.