Natural Food Macromolecule Research Center, School of Food and Biological Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi' an 710021, China.
State Key Laboratory for Performance and Structure Safety of Petroleum Tubular Goods and Equipment Materials, Tubular Goods Research Institute, China National Petroleum Corporation, Xi'an 710077, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Feb 24;13(7):8736-8744. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c20596. Epub 2021 Feb 10.
Integrating nanostructured active materials, antimicrobial components, and rational porous structures is one of the promising approaches for simultaneously boosting removal efficiency, antimicrobial capacity, mechanical property, hydrophobic performance, and air permeability of air filters. However, realizing these performances of an air filter still remains a big challenge. Herein, a multifunctional air filter zNFs-Ag@PT, which is composed of a unique substrate prepared from Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs)-paper towel (PT) microfibers and an upper layer formed from aligned zein nanofibers (zNFs) inspired by a "tug-of-war" repulsion force, is reported. The Ag@PT substrate is fabricated via in situ reduction; and zNFs are prepared by electrospinning a well-prepared zein Pickering emulsion onto a specially designed collector. The innovative collector is a partially conductive design composed of an insulative middle section and two conductive ends. It is demonstrated that the introduction of AgNPs not only endows the zNFs-Ag@PT filter with an effective antimicrobial activity but also provides the substrate with an anisotropic electric field to achieve stretched and aligned zein fibers forming thinner nanofibers than that without AgNPs. As a result, the filtration performances of a zNFs-Ag@PT filter are enhanced. This study initiates an effective way to fabricate bio-based multifunctional air filters with antimicrobial and filtration performances via combining nano- and biotechnology.
将纳米结构的活性材料、抗菌成分和合理的多孔结构集成在一起，是同时提高空气过滤器的去除效率、抗菌能力、机械性能、疏水性和透气性的有前途的方法之一。然而，实现空气过滤器的这些性能仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在此，报道了一种多功能空气过滤器 zNFs-Ag@PT，它由独特的基底和上层组成，基底由 Ag 纳米颗粒（AgNPs）-纸巾（PT）微纤维原位还原而成，上层由受“拔河”排斥力启发的取向玉米醇溶蛋白纳米纤维（zNFs）组成。Ag@PT 基底通过原位还原制备；zNFs 通过将预先制备好的玉米醇溶蛋白 Pickering 乳液电纺到专门设计的收集器上制备。创新的收集器是一种部分导电设计，由绝缘中间部分和两个导电端组成。结果表明，AgNPs 的引入不仅赋予 zNFs-Ag@PT 过滤器有效的抗菌活性，而且为基底提供各向异性电场，实现拉伸和取向的玉米醇溶蛋白纤维，形成比没有 AgNPs 的更细的纳米纤维。因此，zNFs-Ag@PT 过滤器的过滤性能得到了提高。本研究通过结合纳米技术和生物技术，为制备具有抗菌和过滤性能的基于生物的多功能空气过滤器提供了一种有效的方法。
