SCI和EI收录∣中国化工学会会刊

中国化学工程学报 ›› 2021, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (8): 1-9.DOI: 10.1016/j.cjche.2020.10.022

• Separation Science and Engineering •    下一篇

Meltblown fabric vs nanofiber membrane, which is better for fabricating personal protective equipments

Junwei Wu1,2, Hongjia Zhou2, Jingyi Zhou3, Xiao Zhu1, Bowen Zhang1, Shasha Feng1, Zhaoxiang Zhong1, Lingxue Kong4, Weihong Xing1   

  1. 1 State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, National Engineering Research Center for Special Separation Membrane, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009, China;
    2 Jiangsu Jiulang High-Tech Co., Ltd, Nanjing 210009, China;
    3 Department of Material and Chemical Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China;
    4 Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3216, Australia
  • 收稿日期:2020-09-03 修回日期:2020-10-19 出版日期:2021-08-28 发布日期:2021-09-30
  • 通讯作者: Zhaoxiang Zhong
  • 基金资助:
    The authors thank the National Key Research & Development Program of China (2018YFE0203500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21921006, 21878148), and the Key Industrial Research and Development International Cooperation Project (BZ2018004).

Meltblown fabric vs nanofiber membrane, which is better for fabricating personal protective equipments

Junwei Wu1,2, Hongjia Zhou2, Jingyi Zhou3, Xiao Zhu1, Bowen Zhang1, Shasha Feng1, Zhaoxiang Zhong1, Lingxue Kong4, Weihong Xing1   

  1. 1 State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, National Engineering Research Center for Special Separation Membrane, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009, China;
    2 Jiangsu Jiulang High-Tech Co., Ltd, Nanjing 210009, China;
    3 Department of Material and Chemical Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China;
    4 Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3216, Australia
  • Received:2020-09-03 Revised:2020-10-19 Online:2021-08-28 Published:2021-09-30
  • Contact: Zhaoxiang Zhong
  • Supported by:
    The authors thank the National Key Research & Development Program of China (2018YFE0203500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21921006, 21878148), and the Key Industrial Research and Development International Cooperation Project (BZ2018004).

摘要: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a great demand on the personal protection products such as reusable masks. As a key raw material for masks, meltblown fabrics play an important role in rejection of aerosols. However, the electrostatic dominated aerosol rejection mechanism of meltblown fabrics prevents the mask from maintaining the desired protective effect after the static charge degradation. Herein, novel reusable masks with high aerosols rejection efficiency were fabricated by the introduction of spider-web bionic nanofiber membrane (nano cobweb-biomimetic membrane). The reuse stability of meltblown and nanofiber membrane mask was separately evaluated by infiltrating water, 75% alcohol solution, and exposing under ultraviolet (UV) light. After the water immersion test, the filtration efficiency of meltblown mask was decreased to about 79%, while the nanofiber membrane was maintained at 99%. The same phenomenon could be observed after the 75% alcohol treatment, a high filtration efficiency of 99% was maintained in nanofiber membrane, but obvious negative effect was observed in meltblown mask, which decreased to about 50%. In addition, after long-term expose under UV light, no filtration efficiency decrease was observed in nanofiber membrane, which provide a suitable way to disinfect the potential carried virus. This work successfully achieved the daily disinfection and reuse of masks, which effectively alleviate the shortage of masks during this special period.

关键词: Filtration efficiency, Meltblown fabrics, Nano cobweb-biomimetic membrane, Reusable mask

Abstract: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a great demand on the personal protection products such as reusable masks. As a key raw material for masks, meltblown fabrics play an important role in rejection of aerosols. However, the electrostatic dominated aerosol rejection mechanism of meltblown fabrics prevents the mask from maintaining the desired protective effect after the static charge degradation. Herein, novel reusable masks with high aerosols rejection efficiency were fabricated by the introduction of spider-web bionic nanofiber membrane (nano cobweb-biomimetic membrane). The reuse stability of meltblown and nanofiber membrane mask was separately evaluated by infiltrating water, 75% alcohol solution, and exposing under ultraviolet (UV) light. After the water immersion test, the filtration efficiency of meltblown mask was decreased to about 79%, while the nanofiber membrane was maintained at 99%. The same phenomenon could be observed after the 75% alcohol treatment, a high filtration efficiency of 99% was maintained in nanofiber membrane, but obvious negative effect was observed in meltblown mask, which decreased to about 50%. In addition, after long-term expose under UV light, no filtration efficiency decrease was observed in nanofiber membrane, which provide a suitable way to disinfect the potential carried virus. This work successfully achieved the daily disinfection and reuse of masks, which effectively alleviate the shortage of masks during this special period.

Key words: Filtration efficiency, Meltblown fabrics, Nano cobweb-biomimetic membrane, Reusable mask