Particulate matter pollution has become a serious public health issue, especially with the outbreak of new infectious diseases. However, most existing air filtration materials face challenges such as being too bulky, having high resistance, and a trade-off between filtration efficiency and air permeability. Here, a unique electro-blown spinning technique is used to prepare an air filter made of biomimetic nanoscaled tendril nonwovens (Nano-TN). The introduction of an airflow field significantly increases the whipping frequency and the strain mismatch of composite jets, achieving large-scale and highly efficient preparation of Nano-TN. The resultant Nano-TN has an ultrahigh porosity (97%) and a small pore size (2.9 μm). At the same filtration level, its air resistance is 37% lower than that of traditional straight nanofibrous nonwovens and has a higher dust-holding capacity. Moreover, compared with traditional three-dimensional air filters, the Nano-TN filter is thinner, offering tremendous application prospects in various environmental purification and personal protection fields.
Keywords: air filters; biomimetic tendrils; electro-blown spinning; fibrous nonwovens.